Armstrong was found guilty of systematic doping throughout his career and was banned for life by the United States Doping Agency in 2012, before he confessed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013.

Speaking in a BBC interview scheduled to be broadcast on Thursday (January 29), the American claimed that Cookson, the Briton who took over from former President Pat McQuaid in 2013, has not done enough to pull cycling out of the doping mire.

"If McQuaid had made the same decisions Cookson has made in his first year, he would have been lynched," the 43-year-old said.

"Do we like what we have got so far?"

Armstrong went on to say that Astana, the team of reigning Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali, should also be banned following a string of high-profile doping cases.

The Astana set-up were placed on probation after five of their team members failed drugs tests in a five-month period last year.

Artur Fedosseyev became the latest to be embroiled in a doping storm in November after Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy, Ilya Davidenok and Viktor Okishev all tested positive for banned substances.

Vincenzo Nibali's Astana team have been embroiled in doping controversy and Armstrong feels their World Tour licence should have been revoked ©Getty Images



Their doping practices are being independently checked but many cycling fans believe Cookson has demonstrated weakness in the face of adversity.

Armstrong claims "everybody thinks" the Kazakh-based outfit, who he rode for in 2009 when he made his ill-fated comeback, should have their World Tour licence revoked, although he admitted it was difficult for 63-year-old Cookson due to UCI rules.

But the disgraced cyclist cannot understand why the likes of Alexander Vinokourov, the London 2012 road race champion, who runs the Astana team, and Bjarne Riis, the Dane who is the leader of the Tinkoff-Saxo outfit, have not been made to cooperate with the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC).

Vinokourov was caught blood doping during the 2007 Tour de France, which triggered the withdrawal of the entire Astana team from that year's race.

Riis, meanwhile, won the Tour de France in 1996 but admitted 11 years later that he had used a variety of banned methods. 

"If I'm Brian Cookson, I would make it a deal point that you have to come in and talk," Armstrong said.

"So if Riis doesn't talk to you, or Vinokourov doesn't, there should be consequences.

"I don't know those to be examples, but I can imagine.

"If you don't come in to talk, you don't just get passed."

Lance Armstrong says he has spoken to the Cycling Independent Reform Commission but feels others should also be made to co-operate ©Getty Images



The American himself has spoken twice with CIRC in an attempt to get his lifetime ban from the sport reduced, and he added that he has been "totally transparent" with the Commission, who are charged with bringing reform to a sport that has been in turmoil for many years.

"I have met them twice, they have asked me not to go into details, but everybody knows I have met with them, so that is not a secret," he said.

"I think it's safe for me to say that whatever questions they asked, I told.

"A lot of it is out there.

"So I don't know if there's a whole lot out there left, but I was totally honest, and I was totally transparent."

The CIRC is expected to complete its investigation at the end of February and the UCI are set to publish it by mid-March.

A 30-minute documentary, Lance Armstrong: The Road Ahead, will be broadcast on BBC News at 8:30pm GMT on Thursday (January 29), and again over the following days on that channel and BBC World News.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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