Armstrong: I’m still record Tour de France winner

PORTO VECCHIO, Corsica (AP) - The dirty past of the Tour de France came back on Friday to haunt the 100th edition of cycling’s showcase race, with Lance Armstrong telling a newspaper he couldn’t have won without doping.

Armstrong’s interview with Le Monde was surprising on many levels, not least because of his long-antagonistic relationship with the respected French daily that first reported in 1999 that corticosteroids were found in the American’s urine as he was riding his way to the first of his seven Tour wins. In response, Armstrong complained he was being persecuted by “vulture journalism, desperate journalism.”

Now seemingly prepared to let bygones be bygones, Armstrong told Le Monde he still considers himself the record-holder for Tour victories, even though all seven of his titles were stripped from him last year for doping. He also said his life has been ruined by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation that exposed as lies his years of denials that he and his teammates doped.