The Tour de France? Impossible to win without doping: Lance Armstrong

8220;My name was taken out of the palmares list of achievements but the Tour was held between 1999 and 2005 wasn8217;t it? There must be a winner then. Who is he? Nobody came forward to claim my jerseys.8221;

Five-times Tour champion Bernard Hinault was quick to react,the Frenchman telling local TV channel BFM: 8220;He must not know what it was like to ride without doping.8221;

Last year,the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency USADA published a report into Armstrong8217;s doping programme,calling it 8220;the most sophisticated in the history of sport8221;,leading to the American being banned for life and losing his Tour titles.

8220;I did not invent doping. Sorry,Travis,8221; the 41-year-old Texan said,referring to USADA CEO Travis Tygart. 8220;And it doping has not stopped with me. I just took part in the system.

8220;The USADA 8216;reasoned decision8217; perfectly managed to destroy a man8217;s life but it has not benefited cycling at all.8221;

Armstrong also hit out at the International Cycling Union UCI,who have been heavily criticised for allegedly covering up for the American.

8220;UCI president Pat McQuaid can say and think what he wants. Things just cannot change as long as McQuaid stays in power,8221; he said.

8220;The UCI refuses to establish a 8216;Truth and Reconciliation commission8217; because the testimony that everyone would want to hear would bring McQuaid,his predecessor Hein Verbruggen and the whole institution down,8221; he added without elaborating.

The 2013 Tour de France starts on Saturday.