London: Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong said that he would co-operate in a bid to discover the extent of doping in the sport provided he’s treated the same way as his fellow drug cheats.
“If everyone gets the ‘death penalty’, then I’ll take the ‘death penalty’,” said Armstrong in an interview with BBC.
“If everyone gets a free pass, I’m happy to take a free pass. If everyone gets six months, then I’ll take my six months,” added the 42-year-old.
After years of denials, cancer-survivor Armstrong – who has been stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles won between 1999 and 2005 – finally admitted in January he’d used performance enhancing drugs in an interview with US television personality Oprah Winfrey.
He said the fallout had been “tough” both emotionally and in terms of the damage to his estimated $125 million fortune from those seeking legal redress as a result of the lies he told about his drug-taking.
“It’s been tough,” he said. “It’s been real tough. I’ve paid a high price in terms of my standing within the sport, my reputation, certainly financially because the lawsuits have continued to pile up.
“I have experienced massive personal loss, massive loss of wealth while others have truly capitalised on this story.”
Asked if he regretted the Winfrey interview, Armstrong replied: “I was going to have to answer the questions anyway.
“There were plenty of lawsuits in place that would have put me in the cross-hairs.”
Brian Cookson, the new president of the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, has promised to set up an independent commission to find out the full extent of doping within the sport.
The Englishman is keen the commission hears evidence from a large number of people, not just Armstrong, as he attempts to restore cycling’s credibility and that of his own organisation, which has faced allegations of corruption.
Armstrong said he would do whatever he could to “close the chapter and move things forward”, conceding he did not have “a whole lot of credibility” but also insisting he had “nothing to lose”.
He has previously questioned the role of the UCI, claiming “there were things that were a little shady” at the time.
But Armstrong said raking up the past wouldn’t do cycling any good.
“Do I think that this process has been good for cycling?” he asked. “No. I don’t think our sport has been served well by going back 15 years. I don’t think that any sport, or any political scenario, is well served going back 15 years.
“And if you go back 15 years, you might as well go back 30.”
As for whether cycling is clean now, Armstrong insisted he had “no idea”.
However, he argued that “performance enhancement” has been around since the ancient Greeks and there would “always be some form of it”, adding the World Anti-Doping Agency had a “hard” job keeping up with the cheats “because of the development of pharmaceuticals”. (Agencies)
