Lance Armstrong on cheating in cycling: 'My generation was no different'

Admitted steroid user Lance Armstrong said in an interview with cyclingnews.com's Daniel Benson that the sport needs to look for a broad solution to deal with doping.

Armstrong thinks that for the sport to move forward, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is "the only way. As much as I'm the eye of the storm this is not about one man, one team, one director. This is about cycling and to be frank it's about ALL endurance sports. Publicly lynching one man and his team will not solve this problem."

In Armstrong's version of the TRC, cyclists would be called to testify with full amnesty.

Later in the interview, Armstrong said that cyclists have been looking for an edge for years.

CN: Do you feel like you're the fall guy for an entire sport/system?Armstrong: My generation was no different than any other. The 'help' has evolved over the years but the fact remains that our sport is damn hard, the Tour was invented as a 'stunt, and very tough mother f**kers have competed for a century and all looked for advantages. From hopping on trains a 100 years ago to EPO now. No generation was exempt or 'clean'. Not Merckx's, not Hinault's, not LeMond's, not Coppi's, not Gimondi's, not Indurain's, not Anquetil's, not Bartali's, and not mine.

Armstrong: Actually, yes I do. But I understand why. We all make the beds we sleep in.

CN: When you came into the sport, it probably wasn't to dope, it wasn't to cheat but at what point, specifically, did you realize that was how cycling worked and that the governing body weren't dealing with the situation?