An attorney for Lance Armstrong said the disgraced cyclist will not meet the US Anti-Doping Agency's deadline for him to answer questions under oath, and suggested his client would rather participate in international efforts to "clear the air."
In a letter to the USADA dated on Friday, attorney Timothy Herman said that while the athlete is willing to cooperate with the agency, its request to interview him in the next two weeks "cannot be accommodated."
Herman blamed pre-existing obligations. The USADA set a February 6 deadline for Armstrong to fully cooperate in its investigation in return for a possible lifting of his lifetime ban from cycling, the agency's chief executive Travis Tygart said in an excerpt from an interview due to air on the CBS "60 Minutes" programme.