Lance Armstrong interview: 10 questions Oprah Winfrey should ask

[Stevief]

1 You have yet to respond in detail to the case made against you by the US Anti-Doping Agency which provides overwhelming evidence that you headed a doping programme "more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports history … a fraudulent course of conduct that extended over a decade". Usada's case against you includes sworn statements from more than two dozen witnesses including 15 professional cyclists and a dozen former members of your teams. How can you deny their case?

2 Past experience of doping confessions suggests that you will claim you had no alternative but to dope because that was the culture of the sport at the time and it was the only way to succeed. Has it ever occurred to you that in 1999, when you won your first Tour de France, the sport was in a state of transition, with a body of riders and teams clearly and publicly committed to change, and that your doping, and that of other US Postal riders in that Tour and those that followed, contributed strongly to the sport being sucked back into the morass of doping? More importantly, did it cross your mind at the time?

3 In the light of the overwhelming evidence of doping against you in the 1999 Tour, have you any words for Christophe Bassons, whom you intimidated during that race over his anti-doping stance? Similarly, have you any thoughts for Filippo Simeoni, whom you bullied out of a possible 2004 stage win after he testified against your trainer Michele Ferrari?

4 What would you say now if you were alone in a room with any of the whistleblowers – Emma O'Reilly, Greg LeMond, Betsy Andreu, David Walsh – who you threatened when they attempted to expose you?

5 Usada's reasoned decision states that you had "ultimate control ... over the doping culture of [the US Postal Service] team ..." that you "required that [your team-mates] adhered to the doping program outlined for them". Was this indeed the case?

6 It is known that you madetwo substantial payments to the InternationalCycling Union during your racing career. Why did you make those payments?

7 Could you detail any meetings you may have had at the UCI to discuss doping matters and recall what was said at those meetings?

8 In 2009, you returned to the Tour de France after four years' retirement. Usada claims there is evidence to suggest you used blood doping during that race. Can you confirm or deny that? Either way, why did you refuse your consent for the ICU to supply Usada with its laboratory and collection information from that race for analysis and will you now grant that permission?

9 A cycling fan, who believed in you for many years, asked how people like him could possibly now have faith in any of their heroes. What would you say to him and those in the cancer community who believed in you for so long?

10 In July this year, all the living riders who have raced in the Tour de France in its 100 editions will be in Paris for the finish. Will you take your place among them or do you feel your place is elsewhere?