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Lance Armstrong on doping in the 90s: 'I would probably do it again'

"Take me back to 1995 when it was completely and totally pervasive, I'd probably do it again," the disgraced cyclist says in a new documentary.

By Kate Stanton
(UPI Photo/Patrick D. McDermott)
(UPI Photo/Patrick D. McDermott) | License Photo

LONDON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France titles back in 2012, when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.

But the 43-year-old disgraced cyclist says in a new interview that he was a product of the doping culture of the time -- and "would probably do it again."

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"If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn't do it again because I don't think you have to," Armstrong recently told BBC Sport. "If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again."

"It's an answer that needs some explanation," he added. "I look at everything when I made that decision, when my teammates made that decision. It was a bad decision in an imperfect time, but it happened."

Armstrong, who first admitted to drug use during an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2013, described the aftermath of his confession as "brutal."

"The fallout has been heavy, maybe heavier than I thought. And the way I told my story, through Oprah, as good a job as I think she did, it was pretty brutal afterwards," he said.

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Asked whether sports fans should forgive him, Armstrong said: "Listen, of course I want to be out of timeout, what kid doesn't?"

Armstrong, a native Texan and testicular cancer survivor, spoke to the BBC to promote the network's upcoming documentary, Lance Armstrong: The Road Ahead.

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