If it were 1995, Lance Armstrong would probably use performance-enhancing drugs again. The former Tour de France champion, who was stripped of his seven wins and banned for life from cycling, said he would dope again because the rest of the competition was doing the same thing at the time.
Armstrong's legacy was forever tainted after the results of a USADA investigation found he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. Armstrong's seven consecutive Tour de France victories were consequently vacated, and he received a lifetime ban from the sport.
When Armstrong spoke recently about doping to BBC, he admitted he would probably do it all again because of how prevalent performance-enhancing drugs were in cycling during his career.
"It's a complicated question, and my answer is not a popular answer. If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn't do it again, because I don't think you have to. If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I'd probably do it again," Armstrong told BBC. "People don't like to hear that. ...
"When I made the decision - when my teammates made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision - it was a bad decision and an imperfect time. But it happened. When Lance Armstrong did that, I know what happened. I know what happened to cycling from 1999 to 2005. I saw its growth, I saw its expansion."
Armstrong also said he believes many of his peers from that time would feel the same way.
"Listen, if I go back to 1995 - and some started earlier, some a little later, but let's take that as ground zero - I think we're all sorry. And do you know what we're sorry for? We're sorry that we were put in that place," he said. "None of us wanted to be in that place. We all would have loved to have competed man on man, bread, water, naturally clean, whatever you want call it.
"We're sorry, yeah, we're sorry that we were put in a place and we looked around as desperate kids and thought: 'God, I've got to go back to Plano and maybe go back to school, or get a job, or work in a bike shop or work in a factory.' Or a kid goes back to Australia, or Eastern Europe, or the fields of France..."
Armstrong raced professionally from 1992 to 2011, with his seven Tour de France wins spanning from 1999 to 2005, according to ESPN.
