Lance Armstrong claims Tour de France titles will be reinstated as "history always tells the truth"

Lance Armstrong has suggested he believes that one day he will be reinstated as a seven-time winner of the Tour de France, claiming that "history always tells the truth" and "eventually the truth will be told".

The comments came on Steve-O's Wild Ride! podcast, Armstrong talking to the Jackass stunt performer and comedian about his cycling career. The Texan was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 following USADA's anti-doping investigation into the US Postal team, the disgraced former pro having won the race every year between 1999 and 2005.

Everyone knows the story by now, but lawsuits followed, although Armstrong told Steve-O his investment in Uber at an early stage had been "magic" and maintained his family's quality of life. On the sporting front, the seven Armstrong years remain blank, although there are no prizes for guessing who he believes should be considered the winner.

Lance Armstrong (credit: NBC)

He claimed: "History always tells the truth and all you have to do is wait [...] I think history catches up with everybody and so that, in the short term for me, was difficult right, history edited my story.

"The version that was edited to at the time was 'he didn't win any Tours', think about that, where you were stripped of all seven so if you went in the record books it says zero, it also says those seven years there is no winner, so here you have an event like the Tour that is beautiful and iconic and historical and all these things, it has to have a winner.

"History doesn't stop and history doesn't stop editing so that story will continue to be edited and eventually the truth will be told and and it's just a different version of the truth. What really matters is I don't really give a shit what the history books say now, I don't give a shit what was written or is written, I just don't.

"What I care about are the people that I was in the trenches with and I'm obviously talking about my teammates but I'm also talking about the people that we referenced, the guys that got beat, the guys that I wanted to beat [...] If we asked them what happened they will tell you what happened and they'll tell you who won the races.

"History will correct that story. Now I might be long gone and dead, that's fine, history never stops and it never stops searching for the truth and editing [...] and by the way, that's maybe something that I just like to tell myself, I could be totally wrong, I don't think I am."

Armstrong also claimed that there would be no complaints from his rivals and contemporaries if this were the case.

He continued: "Over time, history just corrects things and that's okay. Look, you didn't park at my office, but if you did and walked inside, there's seven yellow jerseys hanging on the wall. Nobody has ever come to claim them. I towed the line with 200 guys every year for seven years.

Lance Armstrong with his maillot jaunes (credit: Lance Armstrong)

"[If] one of those dudes rolled up on that office and said, 'give me that jersey' ... if they want to show up and take one and make a case for it, they can have it. No problem. But nobody's coming."

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We look forward to reading the comments section under this article, although plenty of Steve-O's podcast audience went against Armstrong.

"Lance was such a let down for me," one commented. "I really believed him and he had been lying all along."

"I'm pretty sure this episode will age like fine milk," another added.

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Last week, Armstrong spoke about his cycling life post-racing and said "distracted driving" has made cycling more dangerous and he "avoids long, straight roads like the plague" due to phone-using motorists. Armstrong also suggested that if he becomes "freaked out" by dangerous or erratic driving, he will simply ride on the footpath and recommends riding a gravel bike to escape road riding too.

In December, Sir Bradley Wiggins said Armstrong is a "good man" whose doping misdeeds are "disproportionate to what some people get away with", that after the Texan offered to pay for the British former pro to attend therapy.