During the interview, the first part of which was screened Thursday on the Oprah Winfrey Network, a remorseful Mr. Armstrong insisted that his decision not to sue The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for making doping claims against him is something he "highly regrets."
"If I could turn back the clock, I would never have allowed fellow cyclists to gossip as much as they did," said an emotional Armstrong, breaking down. "For allowing the press and the blogosphere to even speculate on my lack of professionalism is something I must live with forever. It was never... it was never my intention to get caught."
In what proved a probing interview, Oprah asked the 41-year-old, who was recently stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles, whether he gained any discernible benefit from not contesting the charges brought against him.
"When I started developing into a prolific drug cheat, I knew I had to deny at all costs," he continued. "But once this story progressed, once it became pretty much universally known that I had used performance-enhancing drugs, I started to feel this profound sense of guilt. How could I ever have allowed those idiots to find out?"
Meanwhile, Armstrong asserted that he will happily cooperate with the ongoing investigation into why he allowed UCI to gain such close access to his personal records.