Friday 12 October 2012 12:49, UK
Team Sky's Tour De France and Olympic time trial winner Bradley Wiggins has told Sky Sports News he is not surprised it has been proved Lance Armstrong is a drugs cheat.
But Wiggins believes people should not judge Armstrong too harshly, saying he too might have been tempted to dope had it not been for British Cycling. With 11 of Armstrong's former team-mates testifying against him, including Wiggins' fellow Team Sky rider Michael Barry, many have been quick to condemn him. But the 2012 Tour de France champion, believes there are bigger issues on which to focus. "It's not about Armstrong, it's about the culture of the sport for so many years. People like Michael Barry, I can relate to that, I turned pro 10 years ago, and how it felt going in aged 22, with the peer pressure with the likes of Lance Armstrong in a team like US Postal where it was systematic. "You stand by the decisions you make then for the rest of your life, David Millar was the same. "But those decisions stay with you for your whole career and I was very fortunate that I was in a system in British Cycling that, regardless of what team I was in, they supported me with the right way to deal with it. They probably saved me otherwise it might have been me, who knows. The peer pressure was huge. "But the culture has changed." Armstrong's lawyers have described the Usada report as a farce, but Wiggins has little sympathy for a man who he always suspected of cheating. "It is certainly not a one-sided hatchet job, it is pretty damning," he told Sky News. "I am shocked at the scale of the evidence. "I have been involved in pro cycling for a long time and now I realise what it takes to train and win the Tour de France. "I'm not surprised by it...I had a good idea what is going on."
