The rise, rise, rise once more and then fall from grace of Lance Armstrong has long been played out in the public eye. Armstrong’s deception has been laid bare in any number of books, documentaries and Oprah interviews and it seems he may have finally broken.

In a new interview from his house in Aspen, Colorado (looks like he still has a few dollars to his name) Armstrong spoke at length about what he believes is ‘a gross hypocrisy in the world of cycling’. The interview with Tom Cary from the Telegraph is an engrossing read and contains a number of quotes cycling fans will be looking at closely. Here’s a selection of the harder-hitting bits:

“I’m that guy everybody wants to pretend never lived…But it happened, everything happened. We know what happened. Now it’s swung so far the other way… who’s that character in Harry Potter they can’t talk about? Voldemort? It’s like that on every level. If you watch the Tour on American TV, if you read about it, it’s as if you can’t mention him.”

…he hardly ever rides on the road any more – and won’t touch his bike again before riding on the Tour route next month. He does not watch cycling on TV, does not follow it on Twitter or the internet. He has “no idea” who will win the Tour. Has he fallen out of love with cycling? “More or less,” the American replies.

“[My lifetime ban from cycling] matters primarily for triathlon and it matters because the world was told I was the biggest fraud in the history of sport and I don’t think that’s true. I know that’s not true. So I’d love to go to test myself in other things – not cycling things but whether it’s an Ironman or whether it’s something else. That’s why it matters.”

The full article (HERE) is certainly worth a read and, if we can take one thing from this interview, let it be that Armstrong won’t fade into obscurity quietly.

[source:telegraph]