Lance Armstrong says it's impossible to win the Tour de France without drugs - he should know!

Isn't it just what the world needed - and in particular that of cycling?

On the day before the 100th Tour de France begins, Le Monde has published an interview with the race's biggest cheat (well the most publicised one at least) and liar (ditto).

The man in question of course is Lance Armstrong.

(screenshot from Disney film)

There's no need to go into the history of the man, his seven now-tainted wins of the Tour, the constant denials of drug taking and eventual admission or his deserved stripping of the titles he had "won".

That's all well-chronicled elsewhere.

But proving surely that Armstrong somehow believes none of the blame lies with him, here are some of the things Armstrong says in the interview, about the race.

"I didn’t invent doping," he told the paper.

"And it didn't end with me. I just participated in a system that already existed."

Yeah well.

He might be right.

But those are not exactly the words of contrition you would expect from a man who brought disgrace to the sport in the manner in which he constantly avoided telling the truth.

But there's more in his exercise of "justifying" his behaviour or lack of guilt.

“It’s impossible to win the Tour de France without doping because the Tour is an endurance test in which oxygen is a deciding factor," Armstrong said, adding that EPO was decisive for the race just as it was for long distance running.

Way to go! Now let's do a little deflection, shall we? And while we're about it, let's tarnish the reputation of other sportsmen and women based on your in depth knowledge of what it takes to "win".

Bravo M. Armstrong.

On former French rider Laurent Jalabert who had to step down as France 2 television and radio pundit for this year's Tour after doping allegations emerged earlier this week, Armstrong has some "comforting" words.

"Ah, Jaja. With all the respect I have for him, he's in the process of lying."

Congratulations M. Armstrong. You are an expert on the practice.

And finally on the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (huh?), Armstrong said, "I really appreciate Sarko as a man. When I say this, it's not a political statement. It's just a personal opinion. He has always been cool to me."

No, it's not really clear what relevance that particular comment has to anything, but it was included in the interview.

If you want to read excerpts (in French) or the whole interview, then click here and here (for subscribers) respectively.

But there again, maybe you've far better things to do...

The 100th edition of the Tour de France will get underway on Saturday on  Corsica - a fitting tribute as it'll be the first time in its history that it has visited the French Mediterranean island.

Incomplete faction report: No doping scandal hits Tour de France

This year's Tour de France has once again run into trouble after organisers suspended one of the teams because its riders had failed to meet strict doping requirements.

The Chinese-sponsored Aching Joints Technology team was thrown off the Tour after police seized medical supplies at their hotel on Friday at the end of the sixth stage of the race in the eastern French city of Metz.

Slovakia's Peter Sagan wins sixth stage of Tour de France (screenshot from Eurosport video)

Apparently team doctors were found to be in possession of an "unacceptably low" quantity of the performance-enhancing drug Erythropoietin or EPO.

"Our riders are simply not as heavily built as some of those in other teams," Wei Wil Win, the Aching Joints Technology team boss told French television.

"And the quantity of EPO we need to give them falls below the newly-introduced required minimum limit," he continued.

"Of course we encourage our riders to dope themselves as much as they possibly can without thinking about the potential long-term health risks, but the fact of the matter is they're fitter and generally better trained and simply don't need them as much."

Organisers changed regulations this year to require teams to use performance-enhancing drugs for the first time after repeated doping accusations hit the headlines during previous Tours.

"We wanted to give all riders the same chance and rid the race of false allegations," the organisers said in a press statement.

"Setting a minimum EPO level and requiring teams to use them seemed to be the easiest way to avoid any potential doping scandal, but Aching Joints Technology has clearly contravened those rules and in doing so, Faction report; tarnished the reputation of the race."

The news comes as a further blow to the Tour which is already having to cope with reports that several riders in this year's race have apparently agreed to testify against their former team mate and seven-times winner Lance Armstrong in a case to be heard before the the US Anti-Doping Agency.

"We can't win," a race spokesman is quoted as saying.

"When performance-enhancing drugs were illegal we faced constant criticism that we weren't doing enough to enforce the ban. Even though we've changed the rules to make EPOs mandatory, it seems there's always going to be someone trying to flout them and ready to cheat."

Aching Joints Technology are expected to appeal the suspension and take their case to the World anti-doping agency or Wada.

But as Win admitted, "It'll be too late for this year's race and is yet another sad day for the sport of cycling".

Indeed.