Tour riders lash Armstrong doping claims

TOUR de France riders on Friday dismissed claims by shamed US cyclist Lance Armstrong that it was “impossible” to win the sport’s most famous race without doping, saying his claims hit at their credibility.

Cadel Evans, who won the Tour in 2011, said he had shown it was possible to triumph without cheating, amid claims the focus was being shifted away from the start of this year’s historic 100th edition of the race, which began yesterday.

“I think the opposite. I am proof that it’s not true,” the Australian BMC rider told a news conference on the island of Corsica.

Evans’s teammate, the Belgian Philippe Gilbert, added: “If the media did not react there would not be so many problems. But it sells papers. We are concentrating on the Tour.”

Team Sky, which includes race favourite Chris Froome, did not want to comment.

Armstrong was asked in an interview with French daily Le Monde published on

Impossible to win without drugs because the Tour is an endurance event where oxygen is decisive

Friday whether it was possible to win without taking performance-enhancing drugs when he was riding.

He responded: “That depends on the races that you wanted to win.

“The Tour de France? No. Impossible to win without doping because the Tour is an endurance event where oxygen is decisive,” he was quoted as saying by the French daily.

Armstrong, who won the Tour a record seven times between 1999 and 2005, was last year exposed as a serial drug cheat in a US AntiDoping Agency report.

The Texan rider was stripped of his Tour titles and banned for life.

Armstrong told Le Monde that cycling was being made a “scapegoat” for the practice in all sport.

“I simply took part in this system. I’m a human being,” he said.

The head of world cycling’s governing body, Pat McQuaid, also disagreed with Armstrong.

McQuaid, who has faced calls to quit because of accusations of the International Cycling Union’s complicity and cover-up in Armstrong’s activities, denounced the American as an “opportunist”.

“He’s decided to attack the Tour de France at this precise moment and to attack the authorities,” he said. “Lance Armstrong only thinks about himself.” — Sapa-AFP.