Lance 'may take a lie test'

Lance Armstrong may take a lie-detector test to clear his name from doping allegations, his lawyer said yesterday, even though he did not expect the result would change the public's opinion of the American cyclist.

Armstrong is set to lose his record seven Tour de France titles after the US Anti-Doping Agency published a 1000-page report last week that said the retired American took part in and organised doping on his way to his unrivalled success.

Armstrong has always denied he took banned substances during his glittering career but refused to challenge the agency's charges.

His lawyer, Tim Herman, told the BBC's Radio 5 Sportsweek yesterday that the Texan cyclist may take a lie-detector test to prove his innocence.

"We might do that, you never know," Herman said.

Asked why Armstrong would not commit to taking the test, Herman said that he didn't think it would make a difference: "He's moved on. His name is never going to be clear with anyone beyond what it is today."

The world governing body for cycling, the UCI, is yet to rule on the agency's report.

Armstrong, one of the world's most famous athletes who is well known for his cancer-fighting charity work, had said he was a victim of a witch hunt and preferred to focus on his Livestrong foundation.

"People are fans, most of the people that I've talked to, their opinion is, 'We don't care whether he did or he didn't'," said Herman, who added he would like the 26 witnesses who testified against Armstrong to take the lie-detector test as well.

"A lie-detector test properly administered, I'm a proponent of that frankly, just personally," he said.

"I would not challenge the results of a lie-detector test with good equipment, properly administered by a qualified technician. That's a pretty simple answer."

• Former World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound has suggested the International Cycling Union turned a blind eye to alleged doping by Armstrong and others.

Pound said he complained for years to the UCI that Armstrong and other cyclists were given advance notice of their drug tests and allowed to go off unsupervised.

"It is not credible that they didn't know this was going on," Pound said on Friday. "I had been complaining to UCI for years." Pound said drug testers would do tests on riders in the early morning, hours before they had to compete.

"The race starts at 1pm to 2pm and there are no tests prior to the race to see if they are bumped up," he said, adding that after races competitors had an unchaperoned hour before being tested. "So then you go in and get saline solutions and other means of hiding the effects of (performance-enhancing drug) EPO and whatever else it is.

"You have to say: 'I wonder if it was designed not to be successful?'"