Current Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins has given his thoughts on the USADA's evidence against Lance Armstrong.

Speaking to Sky News Bradley Wiggins said he was not surprised by the news. He went on to say, 

"This has been coming for a long time, the evidence has been building slowly...and it was always going to come to a head and that head's today. It's been released and it's pretty damning stuff."

Wiggins thought the public reaction to the news would be mixed,

"They'll be a lot of people who still think he's innocent, and that what he's done outside of cycling will stand for more than what he did inside cycling. There's obviously a half that will see what he achieved as nothing, so they'll obviously be a mixture".

Wiggins was asked whether Armstrong's achievements still deserved credit as so many other riders were cheating at the time. But the Olympic champion did not want to be drawn into that debate saying,

"He certainly had the funding to be the best at that [doping], it's like another sport in itself. It's not really something we should get into, who's the best at that. Because it's going away from sport, it's not what sport's about, it's certainly not why I do it." 

Not everyone has been so critical of Armstrong. Following stage three of the Tour of Beijing Team Sky's Alex Dowsett told the BBC, "He is still a legend of the sport. A guy who had cancer came back and won the Tour de France".

Former teammate Roger Hammand also spoke to the BBC he said he never saw Armstrong dope and described the American as a fantastic and supportive teammate.

The full interview with Bradley Wiggins can be viewed here.

The full evidence against Lance Armstrong is available from the USADA website.

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About the author
Marcus Liddell
Freelance broadcast journalist and UK Cycling writer for Vavel UK.