Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong awaits the start of the 2010 Cape Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town March 14, 2010. Photo: Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Defamed cyclist Lance Armstrong, who duped his way to seven Tour de France wins, states that it wouldn’t have been possible to win the world’s greatest race without doping.
Asked if riders won races drugs-free in the era when he competed, a bullish Armstrong told French daily Le Monde on Friday: “It depends on the races. The Tour de France? No. Impossible to win without doping.
“My name was taken out of the palmares (list of achievements) but the Tour was held between 1999 and 2005 wasn’t it? There must be a winner then. Who is he? Nobody came forward to claim my jerseys.”
Five-times Tour champion Bernard Hinault was quick to react, the Frenchman telling local TV channel BFM: “He must not know what it was like to ride without doping.” – Reuters
Related articles
Former Tour de France Winner Jan Ullrich Admits to Doping
Tour de France list has no space for Armstrong
No invite for Armstrong to ceremony honouring all Tour de France finishers
