Lance Armstrong urges cycling to come clean

It might seem a bit hypocritical of Lance Armstrong to call for the sport of cycling to come clean.

But when a top cycling official held a Twitter Q&A; this week, it was Armstrong who jumped in to play the role of anti-doping crusader.

British cycling boss Brian Cookson is campaigning to unseat Pat McQuaid as president of the International Cycling Union when elections come around in September.

Cookson does not believe that current leadership has done enough to repair the reputation of a sport battered by a long history of doping scandals. He has looked at a number of ways to go about this difficult task.

Armstrong is the central figure in the sport’s mother of all scandals, having been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after admitting to doping. He inserted himself into Cookson’s Twitter conversation on Thursday.

The commission would conceivably call in a range of riders and officials to discuss, possibly under amnesty, improper activities within the sport dating back decades. Armstrong has been a proponent since making his admission in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Cookson replied that he would back such a process if legal and other issues can be worked out.