Lance Armstrong says if he could do it all again, he’d still cheat

It seems that Lance Armstrong has ditched the contrite manner in which he previously admitted to doping throughout much of his illustrious cycling career.

Now he sounds downright defiant.

In an interview with ESPN the Magazine, Armstrong said that -- faced with widespread cheating in his sport -- he would do it all over again and that authorities singled him out because of his contentious nature.

“I knew what my competitors were doing,” he was quoted as saying. “We [his U.S. Postal Service team] were doing less. We were more conservative, and that’s the reason we were never going to be caught.”

Following an investigation led by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, officials stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him from competition for life.

“This is a story because I was a bigger [jerk]. Because I was more litigious. Because I was more combative,” he said. “And I’ve heard from a lot of people who say, ‘You made all the money, you got all the fame, you deserve this.’ And I hear that, and I understand that people think that way. But it’s not consistent with what USADA has said.

“If we’re going to be honest, then just say, ‘He’s a [jerk]. We had to go after him. He tested positive for being the biggest [jerk] in the world.’ Fair. I can live with that.

“To say that he cheated his competitors? Ask them! Ask my competitors.”

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