Lance Armstrong: Ready to come clean on doping?

(CBS News) For nearly a decade, Lance Armstrong has vehemently denied using performance enhancing drugs, taking on critics in the media and within his sport.

"I have never doped. I can say it again ... but I've said it for seven years. It doesn't help," he told Larry King in a 2005 interview.

In July, 2004, he pointed to a lack of "extraordinary proof" that he said was necessary to back up the "extraordinary accusations" against him.

But this week, the famed cyclist says he is "ready to speak candidly" as he prepares to sit down with Oprah Winfrey on Monday for a wide ranging interview.

The openness is uncharacteristic for Armstrong, who remained defiant in his last public statement on the subject. "Bottom line, I played by the rules," he said in the the statement, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary released by the U.S. Anti Doping Agency and the loss of his seven Tour de France titles.

Peter Flax, the editor of Bicycling Magazine, told CBS News' Lee Coward, that a confession to Oprah may not be enough to reverse the damage to Armstrong's athletic reputation and cancer foundation, Livestrong.

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"It's the right decision for him to make, yes, but it's really late and a lot of damage has been done that an apology and a confession on Oprah is not going to take back," Flax said.

However, for Armstrong, who may be hoping to compete again and repair the damage to Livestrong, "it's his only chance at redemption," Flax said.

Armstrong will sit down with Oprah on Monday for an interview that will air Thursday night on the OWN network.