Disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong admits he would still have doped if he had his time again, but does not believe he would need to in the current era.
The American, stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2012, claimed he would change the way he acted to others rather than his decision to cheat, in an interview with BBC Sport.
The 43-year-old did, however, apologise for the barrage of questions faced by Chris Froome as he won the Tour de France in 2013, the year after Armstrong was banned from the sport for life by USADA.
“If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again,” he told BBC sports editor Dan Roan.
“If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn’t do it again because I don’t think you have to.
“When I made the decision, when my team made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision, it was a bad decision at an imperfect time.”
Armstrong, however, believes the decision to dope – and the aggressive denials – benefitted the sport’s growth, with both Trek Bicycles and his charity foundation seeing income rise.
“I know what happened to the sport, I saw its growth,” he added. “Do we want to take it away? I don’t think anybody says ‘yes’.”
The Texan did apologise for his behaviour at the time, however, including his aggressive denials and smears against Filippo Simeoni and Emma O’Reilly among others.
He also took full responsibility for the much-criticised, unfounded bombardment of doping questions faced by Froome as he stormed to the maillot jaune in 2013.
“I’m sorry, and I completely agree that because of the timing of things, it is down to me,” he said.
“It came out after the Tour in 2012, so it’s logical that in 2013 there’s going to be a lot of questions, especially in a year when Chris Froome performs exceptionally.
“So I feel bad for those guys, they shouldn’t have been put in that position. I’m not sure why they were put in a position to answer 15-year-old questions, but it’s unfortunate for all of us, especially for them.”
The full 30-minute BBC documentary, Lance Armstrong: The Road Ahead, will be broadcast on BBC News at 8.30pm on Thursday January 29, while an extended edit of the interview will be available on BBC iPlayer.
