mmg.com.au

Don Fairless wonders if Lance Armstrong’s years of denials and lies extends further than doping during his cycling career.

The disgraced Texan finally admitted to using drugs to win seven straight Tours de France during a television interview with Oprah Winfrey shown in two parts on Friday and Saturday.

His admission provoked criticism from past and present cyclists, commentators of the sport and people across the world — and left many questions still without answers.

‘‘I ask the question, did he ever have testicular cancer?’’ Mr Fairless said.

‘‘He’s such a liar, that you wouldn’t know whether he even had cancer.

‘‘I reckon he was that hungry, he would do anything to suit himself.’’

Shepparton cyclist Leigh Egan said people would quickly forget about Armstrong and his admission.

The former BMX world champion preferred to focus on the new generation of Goulburn Valley and Australian cyclists.

‘‘The people who love the sport will forget all about it, move on and look at the next generation,’’ Mr Egan said.

‘‘Cycling is the best sport in the world, make no mistake about that, and it’s way bigger than Lance Armstrong. I don’t care what he has to say.’’

Mr Fairless, whose son Stephen represented Australia at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, said the calculated doping program Armstrong led among his US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams forced rival cyclists and teams to follow their cheating.

‘‘Other riders from other teams could see the success US Postal Service was having... and fell for the trap to keep up with them,’’ he said.

Mr Fairless said cycling would recover from the Armstrong scandal, even though doping suspicions would always follow future champions.

He hoped the World Anti-Doping Agency never reinstated Armstrong to sports.

‘‘(The televised admission) was all publicity to suit himself,’’ Mr Fairless said.

‘‘I reckon cycling will get over it because there’s such a good lot of fellas involved in it.’’

Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and left Livestrong, the cancer charity he started in 1997.