Cyclist Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey about the doping charges against him will air Thursday and Friday on the OWN network at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

The interview, "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive," will simultaneously stream live on the OWN website and Oprah.com at 9 p.m. ET. Click here to watch the interview.

The interviews will air in two parts on Thursday and Friday.

The sitdown circulated buzz because Armstrong will reportedly confirm for the first time ever that he used performance enhancement drugs throughout his cycling career.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brought evidence against him in October of 2012 showing that he used banned drugs as a cyclist, notably to help him win his seven Tour de France titles. When Armstrong refused to take the case to arbitration, he was stripped of his Tour wins and banned from cycling for life. His sponsors dropped him and he was forced to step down for the cancer-fighting charity he founded in 1997, the Livestrong Foundation.

For years he denied using performance enhancement drugs.

"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 2005. He also testified under oath that year that he has never used performance enhancing drugs.

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

His reveal during Winfrey's interview is a shock for many people but why is he doing it?

In one opinion, Forbes sports writer Monte Burke said "the urge to compete - and not the urge to seek atonement, redemption or forgiveness - seems to be at the heart of his decision to come clean, so to speak."

Armstrong wants to compete again in running events and triathlons, and following his admittance to the charges against him, he hopes it is a possibility, according to Burke. In order to make that happen, The New York Times cited people close to the situation that said Armstrong is planning to testify in a case against the International Cycling Union about their involvement with doping in cycling and also bring up a federal case against the cycling team.