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‘Armstrong might take lie detector test’

Sport
WASHINGTON — Lance Armstrong might take a lie detector test to clear his name from doping allegations, his lawyer said on Sunday, as the ripples of the biggest scandal to hit cycling prompted Australian officials to consider an amnesty for cheats.

WASHINGTON — Lance Armstrong might take a lie detector test to clear his name from doping allegations, his lawyer said on Sunday, as the ripples of the biggest scandal to hit cycling prompted Australian officials to consider an amnesty for cheats.

Report by Supersport

Cycling Australia’s board will meet this week to decide action against Armstrong’s former teammate Matt White after he confessed to doping and stepped down as sports director of the Orica-GreenEdge team.

Board president Klaus Mueller said amnesty was one of options to find out how deep the problem was in Australia.

Another former teammate of the American, Scot David Millar, said: “the power of omerta” had kept cyclists silent about doping for years, but that had changed in the wake of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)’s damning report on Armstrong.

“If you spoke out, you were isolated. Look at what happened to the handful that did. That’s the power of the omerta. That’s not the case anymore,” Millar, who was suspended for two years for doping in 2004, said in an interview with Scotland’s Sunday Herald.

Armstrong is set to lose his record seven Tour de France titles after the USADA published a 1 000-page report last Wednesday that said the now-retired American took part in and organised an elaborate and sophisticated doping scheme on his way to his unrivalled success on the Tour.

Armstrong has always denied he took banned substances during his glittering career, but refused to challenge the USADA charges against him.

His lawyer Tim Herman said the Texan cyclist might take a lie detector test to prove his innocence.

“We might do that, you never know,” Herman said, although he admitted that public perception of the American would be hard to change whatever the result of such a test.

“He’s moved on. His name is never going to be clear with anyone beyond what it is today,” said Herman, adding that he would like the 26 witnesses who testified against Armstrong to take lie-detector tests as well.

“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,” he said.