Scale of Armstrong accusations is most shocking – Hoy

Hoy admitted to being shocked at the contents of the report by the US Anti-Doping Administration (USADA) which claimed Armstrong enforced a drugs culture at the US Postal team.

Armstrong, who recovered from cancer to dominate professional cycling, has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles – although his lawyers have described the USADA report as “a farce”.

Hoy said: “It’s so depressing because of the guy’s books he wrote that were inspirational to people with cancer, and his cancer charity on one side doing so many positive things. Then you find out this.

“I think it’s the scale of it that’s really shocked people as well as who it is. The number of people involved, it’s on a huge scale.

“But, we have to move on, this did happen many years ago and there are so many things that are happening now that are far happier and far more pleasant to talk about and British cycling hopefully can move on.”

Armstrong has repeatedly denied accusations of doping. But in August the 41-year-old announced he would not fight the doping charges filed against him by USADA, saying in a statement he was “finished with this nonsense” and insisting he was innocent.

However, Hoy admitted he had harboured suspicions about the Texan at the time of his Tour de France victories but had tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“You have to take those performances at face value,” he added. “Until they’re proven guilty I think you have to assume that they’re clean.

“In that era, there were a lot of people testing positive. The guys who were coming second and third behind Lance were testing positive so there was an element of suspicion surrounding him, but I always try and give people the benefit of the doubt.”

Hoy said there had been determined efforts to clean up the sport.

He added: “I think everybody’s surprised by it and as a cyclist and a cycling fan, it’s very sad.

“Particularly when you look at the hard work that’s been done, particularly in British cycling, and with the Sky team over the years to run a team that’s very transparent about how it does its operations and has a zero tolerance to anything involving performance-enhancing drugs.

“At least cycling is doing something to try to eradicate it no matter how big the name is...but it is very sad.

“It’s so hard on these athletes, myself included, who work very hard. We do it clean, we put in years and years of effort and we make sure we have the correct diet and we rest properly.

“We don’t go out drinking. You sacrifice a lot and then you win a gold medal and people, or a very small percentage hopefully, but there will be a percentage thinking ‘well, I wonder if there was drugs involved in that performance’.”