David Walsh at the Oxford Literary Festival

The magnificent Sheldonian Theatre (where he is photographed sitting on the steps) was the setting for a talk by David Walsh, Chief Sports Writer of the Sunday Times about his book called "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong". Having followed his articles in that paper over the years, he has become a sort of hero of mine. His persistance in searching for 13 years for the truth behind LA's seven Tour de France "wins" puts him in a class of his own as an investigative journalist. That is why I just had to buy a ticket and make my way to Oxford yesterday.

But listening to Walsh, he is the least obvious gutsy and pushy hack you could imagine. Modest and quietly spoken, it was his determination to seek the truth that made for such a fascinating talk. He started by complaining of a hangover (you just would not have thought so) having the previous evening attended a testimonial dinner for fellow Irishman Brian O'Driscoll ("doesn't he have enough money?"). And the early start did not appeal to him (or us).

I had woken at 6.30am, reminding me of all those years ago when I was working. I had to leave before 7.30am and was glad I did. After an easy drive, the grid lock on the A40 into Oxford delayed me by 20 minutes. Fortunately, Thornhill Park and Ride had a few spaces left, and the bus was waiting for the crawl in to the city. The day was foggy and cold so it was a brisk walk to the Music Room in Christ Church College where I had to pick up my ticket.

There was already a queue outside the Sheldonian Theatre, so we all froze waiting for the doors to open.

Inside it was not much warmer. I kept my coat and scarf on. As the theatre started filling up, I thought there would be lots of empty seats, but by 10am all the 600 seats were taken.

I was already aware of much of the detail of Walsh's investigations. Luckily he only touched on these so the bulk of his talk I found new and extremely interesting. From his early suspicions to ever increasing certainty but without actual evidence, Walsh wrote an article as early as 2001 called "Saddled with Suspicion". He had just met LA and from that conversation he knew LA was a liar. His avoidance to answer about his relationship with the disgraced Dr Ferrari was just the start. "Perhaps" is no answer at all.

In 2004, Walsh and French journalist Pierre Ballaster had failed to get their book "LA Confidential - The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" published in English. But the Sunday Times published an article about the book and some of it's contents. Walsh does not mention the court case where the Sunday Times settled a high court action by LA, and where the newspaper is now seeking repayment, as they are probably legally sensitive. He also mentioned Emma O'Reilly and Betsy Andreu who bravely gave evidence for the book.

When Armstrong retired after his last Tour de France "win", Walsh thought that was that. he had tried and failed, and that LA had got away with it, he had made his money and had a reputation virtually intact. But in 2010, the emails sent by the disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis implicated LA and the rest is history.

What was news to me was the difference between livestrong.org and livestrong.com, the first being a cancer charity and the second a commercial organisation. Walsh talks about the vast millions earned by LA from livestrong.com, especially their tie up with Nike who sold LA Livestrong products. So this left me with a particularly nasty taste in my mouth.

David Walsh had been allotted 40 minutes to talk, but instead he talked for an hour and a quarter. He hardly looked at a note and is as good a talker as he is a writer. Thank you David for your services to cycling. I don't have his book, but I do have his articles downloaded from Times Plus. Try and read them if you can.