"What am I on? I'm on my bike": Armstrong's decade of doping denials

LANCE Armstrong spent more than a decade denying he doped during his cycling career. We take a look back at some of his statements. Lance ready to turn whistleblower

Lance Armstrong

LANCE Armstrong spent more than a decade denying he doped during his cycling career.

To hear him talk about it, the only substances he was on were persistence, raw determination - and miracles.

Now the former champion road cyclist, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year, has "come clean" in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on his use of performance enhancing drugs.

Here is a small collection of some of Armstrong's vehement denials of drug use.

2001

"This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?"

-- An advertisement for Nike

Armstrong Doping Cycling

July 2005

"I'll say to the people who don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that you can't dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles."

-- After Armstrong's seventh and final Tour de France victory

August 2005

"I have never doped, I can say it again, but I have said it for seven years -- it doesn't help."

-- On CNN's Larry King Live after French newspaper L'Equipe reports tests on urine samples taken from Armstrong during the 1999 Tour and frozen were positive for blood-boosting erythropoietin (EPO).

November 2005

"... the faith of all the cancer survivors and almost everything I do off of the bike would go away too. Don't think for a second I don't understand that."

-- In testimony under oath during legal proceedings involving SCA Promotions over a bonus payment for a Tour de France victory.

June 2007

"I don't hate anybody. That's not the way I roll… He would lie, because he has to support her in some way.” -- Armstrong is response to allegations from former friend and teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy

July 2007

"I was on my death-bed. You think I'm going to come back into a sport and say, 'OK, OK doctor give me everything you got, I just want to go fast?' No way. I would never do that."

-- Speaking of his life in an interview in Aspen with Bob Schieffer, a respected journalist with CBS and a cancer survivor.

Lance Armstrong

April 2009

"This is just another example of the improper behavior by the French laboratory and the French anti-doping organizations. I am sorry that they are disappointed that all the tests were negative but I do not use any prohibited drugs or substances." -- Armstrong on being tested in France

July 2009

"The critics say I'm arrogant. A doper. Washed up. A fraud. That I couldn't let it go. They can say whatever they want. I'm not back on my bike for them."

-- A Nike commercial in the build-up to Armstrong's first Tour since his comeback from retirement

May 2010

"We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from. I can give you one word to sum this all up. It’s credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago.” -- Armstrong said, maintaining that he never used any banned performance-enhancing substance

July 2010

“As long as I live, I will deny it. There was absolutely no way I forced people, encouraged people, told people, helped people, facilitated. Absolutely not. One hundred percent…I mean, I can’t control what other riders do.” -- Armstrong denying that he doped or encouraged his teammates to do so

May 2011

"20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.” -- Armstrong tweeted in response to former teammate Tyler Hamilton’s accusations

Lance Armstrong

June 2012

"I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. These charges are baseless [and] motivated by spite." -- Armstrong said in a statement on his website.

August 2012

“There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense. The bottom line is I played by the rules.” -- Armstrong on ending his fight against USADA doping charges.

- With staff writers