PARIS, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Cycling champ Lance Armstrong denied doping allegations published by a French newspaper Tuesday.
In a statement published on his Internet site (www.lancearmstrong.com) the seven-time winner of the Tour de France described the doping allegations by the French sports paper L'Equipe as akin to a "witch hunt."
On Tuesday, L'Equipe published a four-page spread accusing Armstrong of taking performance-enhancing EPO in the late 1990s. The newspaper said a Paris-area laboratory had tested old frozen urine samples of Armstrong's dating back to 1998 and 1999, and found traces of EPO in the later samples.
But Armstrong cast doubt on L'Equipe's allegations, saying that "the paper even admits in its own article that the science in question here is faulty."
"I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs," he said.
Armstrong retired last month after winning his record seventh consecutive Tour de France.
