Lance Armstrong has said if nobody, including himself, had been doping when he was racing he would have won the Tour de France.
Now
banned from cycling for life after his career-long doping was confirmed in a
WADA inquiry, Armstrong has claimed he and his team were the best at
everything.
And he
maintained if the doping products were taken out of the sport, he still would
have emerged on top at the Tour.
However,
when it became clear so many other riders were taking drugs and then upgrading
to EPO, Armstrong said could either “go home” or take the same substances.
He was
being interviewed by Mike Tirico on NBC Sports as part of the channel’s Tour de
France coverage.
“I don't lay down,” he said of never entertaining the prospect of “going
home” rather than taking drugs.
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“And it was the wrong decision, but laying down would have been giving up,
going home.
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"I knew there were going to be knives at this fight, not just fists. I
knew there would be knives.
“I had knives, and then one day, people start showing up with guns. That's
when you say, 'Do I either fly back to Plano, Texas, and not know what you're
going to do?
“Or do you walk over to the gun store?' I walked to the gun store. I didn't
want to go home.”
He also described as “absolutely not true” the charge that he was the head
of a drug taking team group pushed other riders into taking drugs.
Asked when he had turned on mentally to taking drugs so he could compete and
win he said it was probably when he was about 20 years old.
"It was probably '91, maybe, at an Italian stage race. And again, it's
hard to differentiate, because I believe we weren't given anything banned…
“But the doctor walked in… and I was in the lead of the race. I wanted to
win the race. (The doctor) walked in and I said: 'Give me everything in the bag’.
And he just laughed.”
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