Lance Armstrong has admitted that cycling authorities were powerless to prevent doping during the 1990s.

The disgraced Texan, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, said that doping controls in the past were not sufficiently effective.

"They could not do a thing. The head of the IAAF (athletics) couldn't do a thing, and the head of FINA (swimming) couldn't do a thing. They just did not have the tools to do anything until maybe 10 years later."

In the interview with Cycling News, Armstrong also admitted the reasons why he first used banned substances.

"In '95, we just decided to make that next step. There were certainly as a whole us American guys, to generalise that group, who made that decision together.

"Perhaps there were people on the team who we knew had done that, and there were others - we had to have help from the team doctor - but these are all people who have avoided any consequences."