Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong told
BBC News in a story published on Monday that he would dope himself all over again if it meant being on same level as other riders using performance enhancing drugs back in 1995.
Armstrong made the admission to BBC Sports editor Dan Roan in the cyclist's first television interview since shocking the sports world by admitting on an Oprah Winfrey special that he used drugs in his quest of cycling titles.
Once considered one of the greatest cyclist of his generation, winning a record seven Tour de France titles, Armstrong had them all stripped away and was banned from the sport for life by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2012.
Yet, after losing so much, Armstrong, 43, told Roan that if he had a do over, he would like do it again.
"If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn't do it again because I don't think you have to," said Armstrong, suggesting the sport is now cleaner now than it was in 1995. "If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again."
Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer which had spread to his lungs and brain in 1996 and underwent chemotherapy and surgery,
according to Britannica.com. After recovering from cancer, he staged a cycling comeback and won his first Tour de France title in 1999.
"When I made the decision (to dope), when my team made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision, it was a bad decision and an imperfect time," Armstrong told BBC News. "But it happened. And I know what happened because of that. I know what happened to the sport, I saw its growth."
Timothy Rapp of the Bleacher Report opined that if Armstrong was testing the water for public acceptance with the interview, he was still a long way off.
"In the coming years, the public might forgive Armstrong," Rapp wrote. "He might be permitted to compete in future events of some nature, such as marathons. Perhaps history will someday judge his entire generation of cyclists and not just him, reinstating his Tour de France titles. A year after admitting he doped, however, feels far too soon for any of that to transpire."