Lance Armstrong faces Oprah Winfrey: live 02.50 Truly bizarre moment: Armstrong says he looked up the definition of 'cheater' and satisfied himself that he didn't qualify because he wasn't giving himself an unfair advantage (because everyone else was doping). 02.47 Oprah confronts him with a clip after his 2005 victory, where he said he felt sorry for the cynics who didn't believe that the Tour de France was an honest race through hard work and determination. It was an extraordinary act of deceit and hubris. He looks sheepish rather than tormented by it. That was the last time I won the Tour de France. That was what you leave with? You can leave with better that, Lance. That was lame. 02.45 As you can imagine, Twitter is just eating this up: Helpful tweeters are also suggesting #doprah 02.43 So why did you do it? Why the doping and why the incredible cover up and defiance in the face of the truth? I think just this ruthless desire to win, to win at all costs. It served me well on the bike, it served me well during the disease but the level it went to is a flaw. 02.40 We're moving to softer stuff now. "I'm flawed, deeply flawed," he says as he describes himself as both a "a jerk" and "a humanitarian." 02.37 He's being asked about Michele Ferrari, the Italian doctor described by doping authorities as a maestro of professional drugging. Armstrong defended him in the past but today admits the doctor was involved. 02.33 Armstrong deploys a pretty amazing metaphor as he describes how commonplace doping was: 02.28 So the vibe of this thing. Oprah is being pretty firm with him, belaying concerns that this was going to be all softball. Armstrong looks well-prepared and grim-faced. He's confessing to a lot of the facts around the drug use but pushing back more against the idea that he was a monster who destroyed the lives of people around him. 02.27 Lance is now denying that pressured other team members into doping. I was the leader of the team, the leader of any team leads by example and there was never any direct order or directive that you have to do this. But he admits there was "a level of expectation" that may have pressured other riders into doping. He also agrees that he was "a bully." 02.25 We're in ad break. In the meantime here's a little more information on EPO or Erythropoietin, the drug Armstrong just confessed to: Erythropoietin (pronounced, ah-rith-ro-poy-tin, and abbreviated, EPO) is a relatively recent entry into the deceitful pursuit of glory. EPO is a protein hormone produced by the kidney. After being released into the blood stream it binds with receptors in the bone marrow, where it stimulates the production of red blood cells (erythrocytes). Medically, EPO is used to treat certain forms of anemia (e.g., due to chronic kidney failure). Logically, since EPO accelerates erythrocyte production it also increases oxygen carrying capacity. This fact did not long escape notice of the athletic community. 02.20 Armstrong says the last time he doped was 2005 and that he was clean during his comeback in 2009, when he finished third in the TdF. He says the accusation that he doped on those final rides angered him. Oprah's question is spot on: Are we talking semantics here? Are we talking semantics? 02.16 Lance laughs and says "we would need a long time" to describe how he actually got away with taking the drugs. He says his "cocktail" was EPO, an oxygen enhancer, blood transfusions, and testosterone. But he says he was not afraid of being caught because authorities so rarely tested outside of the immediate racing period. "It's a question of scheduling," he says as he describes outwitting the drug testers. 02.14 He says the few men who weren't doping were "heroes" and denies that he ever considered them "suckers" for not taking part in the wide-spread doping culture. 02.10 Armstrong says he is not here to blame others but it was "not possible" to win the TdF during his time without doping. But he's being confronted with the 160-page USADA report that describes the sophisticated network he developed to cover up his doping. He flatly denies that saying he and his accomplices were "conservative" and "risk-averse" and not really doing anything different to what others were doing at the time. 02.07 He admits that he doped during his seven consecutive Tour de France victories and admits to taking a whole string of drugs. So why come clean now, after 13 years of defiance? "I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," he says. He admits that he couldn't live up to the "mythical" story of his own victories, both in sport and over cancer. 02.00 Here we go: dramatic voice-over tracking the downfall of the superstar. And then to the key question: Yes or no - did you ever take banned substances? 01.57 This, I think, is probably less likely to come up: 01.55 One of the key allegations against Armstrong comes his former teammate, Frankie Andreu, and his wife, Betsy. The Andreus claim that they were in a hospital room with Armstrong in 1996 while he was recovering from cancer where he allegedly told doctors he had taken a long list of performance-enhancing drugs. After falling out with Armstrong and making their allegations public, the Andreus found themselves on the receiving end of a brutal campaign by Lance and his allies. Will Armstrong address his treatment of his former friends? Let's wait and see. 01.45 My colleague Rachel Ray reports that Lance is treading a path familiar to many disgraced stars, including Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. Confessional: The Duchess of York with Oprah 01.40 The expectation is that he's going to admit to doping at some stage in his career and offer some sort of apology. But there are lots of questions still: 1) How extensive will his confession be? Will he claim that the doping was limited to a small portion of his career? 2) Will he admit he was at the centre of an elaborate network designed to conceal his doping? 3) Will he apologise to the former teammates who have testified against him and who he accused of being liars? 4) How will he justify the years of deceit? 01.35 The interview was filmed on Monday and has been aggressively previewed but we still don't really know what Armstrong is going to say or how extensive his confession is. Oprah has been teasing in her few appearances since the interview. Here's what she had to say: 1.30am GMT Hello and welcome to our live coverage as Lance Armstrong - a man who defeated cancer and won the Tour de France seven consecutive times - faces his toughest challenge yet. In half an hour we will the first round of his face off with Oprah Winfrey, the high priestess who takes the confessions of America's disgraced superstars.