"I left it all on the table with her and when it airs the people can decide," Armstrong said in a text message yesterday.

Armstrong was responding to a report in the New York Daily News, citing an unidentified source, that he was not contrite when he acknowledged during Monday's taping with Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

He has also held conversations with US anti-doping officials, touching off speculation that the team leader who demanded loyalty from others soon may face some tough choices himself: whether to co-operate and name those who aided, knew about or helped cover up a sophisticated doping ring that Armstrong ran on his tour-winning US Postal Service squads.

"I have no idea what the future holds other than me holding my kids," Armstrong said.

His interview with Winfrey will be aired today but already some people want to hear more - under oath - before he's allowed to compete again in elite triathlons, a sport he returned to after retiring from cycling in 2011.

In addition to stripping him of all seven of his Tour de France titles last year, anti-doping officials banned Armstrong for life from sanctioned sports.

David Howman, director- general of the World Anti- Doping Agency, said Armstrong had to follow a certain course and "that is not talking to a talkshow host".

Former teammate Frankie Andreu, one of several riders Armstrong cast aside on his ride to the top of cycling, said no one was better suited to provide anti- doping authorities with a blueprint for cleaning up the sport.

"Lance knows everything that happened," Andreu said. "He's the one who knows who did what because he was the ringleader. It's up to him how much he wants to expose."

The International Cycling Union has urged Armstrong to tell his story to an independent commission it has set up to examine claims that the sport's governing body hid suspicious samples and accepted financial donations.