Disgraced cycling legend Lance Armstrong's fierce defence of his record finally collapsed as he admitted that his seven Tour de France titles were fueled by an array of drugs.

Armstrong finally admitted it. He doped.

He was light on the details and didn't name names. He mused that he might not have been caught if not for his comeback in 2009.

And he was certain his "fate was sealed" when longtime friend, training partner and trusted lieutenant George Hincapie, who was along for the ride on all seven of Armstrong's Tour de France wins from 1999-2005, was forced to give him up to anti-doping authorities.

But right from the start and more than two dozen times during the first of a two-part interview last night with Oprah Winfrey on her OWN network, the disgraced former cycling champion acknowledged what he had lied about repeatedly for years, and what had been one of the worst-kept secrets for the better part of a week: He was the ringleader of an elaborate doping scheme on a U.S. Postal Service team that swept him to the top of the podium at the Tour de France time after time.

The 'Yes', 'No' Interview 

Winfrey got right to the point when the interview began, asking for yes-or-no answers to five questions.

Did Armstrong take banned substances? "Yes."

Was one of those EPO? "Yes."

Did he do blood doping and use transfusions? "Yes."

Did he use testosterone, cortisone and human growth hormone? "Yes."

Did he take banned substances or blood dope in all his Tour wins? "Yes."

"I'm a flawed character," he said.

Did it feel wrong?

"No," Armstrong replied. "Scary."

"Did you feel bad about it?" Winfrey pressed him.

"No," he said. "Even scarier."

"Did you feel in any way that you were cheating?"

"No," Armstrong paused. "Scariest."

'Didn't view doping as cheating'

"I went and looked up the definition of cheat," he added a moment later. "And the definition is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe. I didn't view it that way. I viewed it as a level playing field."

Wearing a blue blazer and open-neck shirt, Armstrong was direct and matter-of-fact, neither pained nor defensive. He looked straight ahead. There were no tears and very few laughs.

Whether his televised confession will help or hurt Armstrong's bruised reputation and his already-tenuous defense in at least two pending lawsuits, and possibly a third, remains to be seen.

Either way, a story that seemed too good to be true -- cancer survivor returns to win one of sport's most grueling events seven times in a row -- was revealed to be just that.

'I'm a flawed character'

"I made my decisions. They're my mistake," Armstrong told US talk show host Oprah Winfrey yesterday, in his first interview since he was stripped of his record yellow jersey haul and banned from sport for life.

"And I'm sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I'm sorry for that," Armstrong said. "I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times."

"Certainly, I'm a flawed character," said Armstrong, who was once revered as a cancer survivor who beat the odds to succeed on cycling's greatest stage, then used his fame to help others fighting the disease.

"It's just this mythic, perfect story," he said. "And it wasn't true."

He said he didn't believe that in his years of competition it was possible to win cycling's greatest races without performance enhancers.

'All the fault is mine'

"All the fault and all the blame here falls on me, but behind that picture and behind that story there's momentum, momentum," Armstrong said.

"And whether it's fans or whether it's the media ... It just gets going and I lost myself in all that," he said.

He admitted he bullied people who didn't go along with the "narrative" he constructed, but categorically denied forcing team-mates to dope.

He dodged few questions and refused to implicate anyone else, even as he said it was humanly impossible to win seven straight Tours without doping.

"I'm not comfortable talking about other people," Armstrong said.

'I deserve this'

Along the way, Armstrong cast aside teammates who questioned his tactics, yet swore he raced clean and tried to silence anyone who said otherwise.

Ruthless and rich enough to settle any score, no place seemed beyond his reach -- courtrooms, the court of public opinion, even along the roads of his sport's most prestigious race.

That relentless pursuit was one of the things that Armstrong said he regretted most.

"I deserve this," he said twice.

"It's a major flaw, and it's a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome. And it's inexcusable. And when I say there are people who will hear this and never forgive me, I understand that. I do. ...

"That defiance, that attitude, that arrogance, you cannot deny it."

Armstrong said he started doping in mid-1990s but didn't when he finished third in his comeback attempt.