Two weeks after he publicly admitted to using PEDs in an Oprah interview, Lance Armstrong spoke with Daniel Benson of Cycling News today.
And he had much more interesting things to say than he did two weeks ago.
Armstrong flat-out said that he views himself as the fall guy for an entire sport, and hinted that cycling's governing bodies have unfairly focused their attentions on him and his team.
He also questioned the assumption that his generation of cycling was uniquely dirty.
Here are the most interesting quotes.
On being scapegoated:
Cycling News: Do you feel like you're the fall guy for an entire sport/system?
Armstrong: Actually, yes I do. But I understand why. We all make the beds we sleep in.
On how his era of cycling wasn't particularly dirty:
"My generation was no different than any other. The 'help' has evolved over the years but the fact remains that our sport is damn hard, the Tour was invented as a 'stunt, and very tough mother f**kers have competed for a century and all looked for advantages. From hopping on trains a 100 years ago to EPO now. No generation was exempt or 'clean'. Not Merckx's, not Hinault's, not LeMond's, not Coppi's, not Gimondi's, not Indurain's, not Anquetil's, not Bartali's, and not mine."
On USADA CEO Travis Tygart saying Lance only came clean so he could compete in sanctioned events again:
"That was Travis' stunt to make me look self-serving."
On how to fix cycling:
CN: Why do you believe that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is the best way forward for cycling?
Armstrong: It's not the best way, it's the only way. As much as I'm the eye of the storm this is not about one man, one team, one director. This is about cycling and to be frank it's about ALL endurance sports. Publicly lynching one man and his team will not solve this problem.
