Sir Chris Hoy has weighed in on the revelations that Lance Armstrong may have consistently used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
The six-times Olympic champion described the situation as "depressing" because the American was a inspiration to so many people.
"It's so depressing because the guy's books were inspirational to people with cancer, and his cancer charity, and then you find out this," The Mirror quotes Hoy as saying.
"It's the scale of it that has shocked people, as well as who it is. But we must move on."
The Scot went on to say that he harbours suspicions about Armstrong's Tour wins between 1999 and 2005.
"You have to take those performances at face value. Until they are proven guilty, I think you have to assume that they're clean. But, in that era, there were a lot of people testing positive," he added.
"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."
The United States Anti-Doping Agency released a 1,000-page report on Wednesday claiming that Armstrong was part of "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme the sport has ever seen".
Mark Langshaw
