CYCLING:The long wait for Lance Armstrong to admit his doping and deceit ended last week when he came clean, at least partly, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Now he is back in Hawaii with his family, without credibility, a job, a cancer foundation to represent or any foreseeable income that would come close to the millions he once earned from sponsors.

So what is Armstrong’s next move? Anti-doping officials are hoping he has one thing at the top of his to-do list: to knock on their doors.

Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, and David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), are eager to see if Armstrong will come to them to testify under oath about his doping. They want to see if he is willing to provide details of how he doped and got away with it for so long. With Winfrey, Armstrong failed to delve into any of the details of his doping, leaving many important questions unanswered. He did not provide names of the people who helped him dope. He never explained how he so masterfully evaded testing positive for more than a decade.

By giving that information to anti-doping authorities, Armstrong could help improve a sport fighting to rid itself of a dark cloud of doping.

It also could hasten his possible redemption, according to Steven Ungerleider, a psychologist who wrote a book about the East German doping machine and has been a consultant to the Olympic movement for more than 35 years.

“I support Lance and I support his disclosures,” said Ungerleider, who has been in contact with Armstrong’s team of advisers. “But coming forward on Oprah was just a very tiny baby step for him. He has to realise that he could leave a tremendous legacy if he were to meet with the Wada folks and assist them in cleaning up the sport by putting everything he knows on the table.

“I know he probably doesn’t think so now, but he could really come out of this with a positive legacy that he could leave for his children.”

Grief and denial

Ungerleider said he did not expect Armstrong to come forward right away, because he is “dealing with enormous grief, anger and denial” that will take a while to work through.

Armstrong said in an email that he would spend some quiet time with his family before deciding on his plans.

It is “highly unlikely” that he will be speaking to the US Anti-Doping Agency, he said, but “anything is possible”. It is more likely that he will come forward with details about his doping past to a truth and reconciliation commission.

The purpose of that commission, which might be formed this year, would be to elicit truthful confessions from riders in exchange for lenient sanctions or no sanctions.

In his interview with Winfrey, Armstrong said he could not be the man to push for that amnesty effort because he does not have credibility in the sport, but that he would be a willing participant.

“If they have it, and I’m invited, I’ll be the first man at the door,” he said.

Armstrong began speaking with Usada officials last month, when he met them in Denver to discuss how he could mitigate his lifetime ban from Olympic sports.

His goal is to compete in triathlons and running events, but most of those are sanctioned by organisations that follow the World Anti-Doping Code, under which he is serving a lifetime ban.

If he does help officials build cases against others, his ban could be reduced to eight years.

New York Times Service