JOIN US Lance Armstrong has said he was not surprised by a French Senate inquiry's findings that the top two in the 1998 Tour de France took the banned blood booster EPO because virtually all riders at that time cheated and told lies.
"I am not surprised," the disgraced Tour winner told Cyclingnews. "As I have said, it was an unfortunate era for all of us and virtually all of us broke the rules, and lied about it."
The American, who was stripped of his seven Tour titles for doping, called for cycling to address its doping past in a "collective and co-operative manner".
"If we don't come together, have the conversation and draw a line in the sand and then move on, we're all screwed," he said.
Armstrong admitted having taken performance-enhancing drugs in January and was stripped of the Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency said it had uncovered a sophisticated doping programme.
Armstrong did not compete in 1998 because he was battling cancer but the French Senate inquiry, published on Wednesday, named him as testing positive for EPO in 1999.