CHICAGO - Lance Armstrong confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, reversing more than a decade of denial.

"Yes," Armstrong said when Winfrey asked if he used a series of drugs to help his record run.

Armstrong said, "I made my decisions. They are my mistake."

Armstrong also told Winfrey his doping admission is probably "too late" for most people.

Sitting in a chair across from Winfrey, Armstrong said he could not have won the race seven times without the drugs and gave a small smile.

Additionally, Armstrong called his run to seven Tour de France titles "so perfect for so long."

Armstrong was stripped of all his titles in the wake of a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report last October and banned for life from competing in triathlons and other sanctioned events. He also lost nearly all his sponsors and left the Livestrong cancer charity he founded in 1997.

The interview was taped Monday.