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(AP) -- Lance Armstrong's confession is now public knowledge.
 
Armstrong admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.

Saying they were his decisions and his mistake, Armstrong said he couldn't have won the race seven times without the drugs.
 
Armstrong answered "yes" when asked if he utilized EPO, blood doping and transfusions, testosterone, cortisone and human growth hormone, saying he did it in all seven of his Tour wins.
 
The interview was videotaped on Monday and aired Thursday on Winfrey's network.

 The confession comes following a decade of denials by Armstrong, who was stripped of his titles in the wake of a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report last October.

He was banned for life from competing in triathlons and other sanctioned events.

 He also lost nearly all his sponsors and left the Livestrong cancer charity he founded in 1997.
 
Armstrong confirmed he was the ringleader of an elaborate doping scheme on a U.S. Postal Service team that swept him to the top of the podium at the Tour de France time after time.

He said he might not have been caught if not for his comeback in 2009.

And he was certain his "fate was sealed" when longtime friend, training partner and trusted lieutenant George Hincapie was forced to give him up to anti-doping authorities.
 

Lance Armstrong's explanation that he used performance-enhancing drugs to create "a level playing field" in cycling has been described by the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency as "a convenient way of justifying what he did - a fraud."
 
WADA president John Fahey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday that Armstrong's assertion in Oprah Winfrey's show that he wasn't cheating when he took part in doping through his seven Tour de France wins "gives him no credibility." Fahey adds: "He was wrong, he cheated and there was no excuse for what he did."
 
The WADA chief said if Armstrong "was looking for redemption, he didn't succeed in getting that."

(Copyright ©2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)