It's all about the ratings...

Discerning readers will note that the title for this post is a parody of the title of Lance Armstrong's then-acclaimed book It's Not About the Bike. It was via the book that the myth of the clean-living cancer survivor beating the drug cheats in their own game was crafted. We now know that it was all predicated on a lie.

And clearly, Oprah Winfrey smells a ratings winner; Newstalk ZB reports:

Oprah Winfrey says her interview with Lance Armstrong was an exhausting two and a half hours - but she's satisfied with it.
So satisfied she's decided not to cut a single frame.
Sky News reports instead of cutting the interview down to the originally planed 90 minutes she will now run the it in its entirety over two nights.
Oprah admits she wasn't getting exactly what she expected.
"I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I expected. It was surprising to me. I would say that for myself, my team, all of us in the room, we were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers."
The first part of the interview will be aired on Friday. 

"The bike" has always just been a means to an end, the end being Lance Armstrong's control freak mentality, personal wealth and legacy. The legacy has been destroyed by the revelations that Armstrong not only led the peloton but also the race to the pharmaceuticals. The wealth will slowly dissipate; already the Sunday Times in the UK is taking legal action to recoup money it paid to Armstrong to settle a defamation action, and there's the none-too-small issue of prize money for seven Tours de France, not to mention money received from endorsements and sponsorship. The commercial world is unlikely to take Armstrong's deception lying down.

Which leaves the control freak mentality. We guess that we'll just have to watch Oprah on Friday (and whenever Part II screens) to see how much that was broken down, given that Lance Armstrong took a team of legal and business advisors to the taping of the interview.

So it never really was all about the bike; it was always all about Lance Armstrong rising to the top by whatever means was necessary. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.