In a 2005 interview, CNN's Larry King asked Armstrong for his thoughts on why he was being investigated. The two had discussed journalists and officials in France who were making allegations that Armstrong had doped.

"You know, we could look at a lot of things. If we consider the landscape between Americans and the French right now, obviously relations are strained," Armstrong responded.

"But this has been going on for seven years ... they started with scandalous headlines and a lot of insinuation and a lot of slimy journalism."

"I can't lie"

An expression Armstrong has used many times in various contexts, generally having nothing to do with doping.

Now, it speaks for itself.

The legacy

"I'm sorry for you"

In one of many outbursts against those who dared to question the facade he presented to the world, Armstrong had this to say to "the cynics and the skeptics: 'I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry you can't dream big and I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles,'" Australia's ABC TV network reported in the program "The World According to Lance."

People's faith in me "would be erased"

This one seems largely true.

Buried right in the middle of yet another claim that he would never dope, Armstrong said something that proved unintentionally prophetic.

"It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years," he once said. "All of that would be erased."

The question now is just how much of Armstrong's legacy is erased -- and how much he gets a chance to rewrite.