Banned cyclist Lance Armstrong was the victim of "a witch hunt" and made a scapegoat by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), says former International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid.
A cancer survivor and once a hero to millions, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and banned for life from racing in 2012 by USADA after it accused him in a report of engineering one of the most sophisticated doping schemes in sports.
"He was very much made a scapegoat, there was a witch hunt after Armstrong," McQuaid told BBC Radio 5 live on Tuesday, before adding that he had "a certain sympathy" with the American.
Irishman McQuaid, UCI president from 2006 to 2013 before being replaced by Brian Cookson, made his comments a day after Armstrong had told the BBC he would not have needed to resort to doping in the sport's current era.