Lance Armstrong ironically hit out at International Cycling Union (UCI) president Brian Cookson yesterday for failing to take the tough approach on doping that he promised.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 for doping offences but now feels that Cookson is being too lenient on his mission to clean up the sport.

The disgraced cyclist recently said he should be forgiven for his past crimes but that if he had the chance he would do it again, yet he wants a commission to overturn his lifetime ban from cycling.

Speaking to the BBC he said: “If McQuaid (former ICU president) had made the same decisions Cookson has made in his first year, he would have been lynched. Do we like what we have got so far?”

Armstrong can’t understand why Cookson didn’t force Astana team boss Alexander Vinokourov and Tinkoff-Saxo’s Bjarne Riis to co-operate with the commission to investigate the high number of doping scandals in cycling’s past.

Or why the UCI didn’t ban Astana after five of its riders failed drug tests last year. 

“If I’m Brian Cookson, I would make it a deal point that you have to come in and talk,” said the US cyclist.

“So if Riis doesn’t talk to you, or Vinokourov doesn’t, there should be consequences. I don’t know those to be examples but I can imagine. If you don’t come in to talk, you don’t just get passed.”

Armstrong did, however, apologise to British riders Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome for the scrutiny they came under after winning the Tour de France.

Armstrong said: “I’m sorry, and I completely agree that, because of the timing of things, it is down to me.

“(Usada’s reasoned decision) comes out after the Tour in 2012, so it’s logical that in 2013 there’s going to be a lot of questions. Especially in a year when Chris Froome performs exceptionally.

“Froome won the Tour in 2013, that’s 14 years after 1999. If in 1999 I was asked questions about the 1985 winner of the Tour de France, I’d be like, ‘What are you talking about? Why are you asking me about the mid-80s?’

“But the story was so relevant to people. When this went down, people were left with the impression, in 2012, that I was hanging blood bags six months earlier. That’s not the case.

“So I feel bad for those guys, they shouldn’t have been put in that position. I’m not sure why they were put in a position to answer 15-year-old questions, but it’s unfortunate for all of us, especially for them.”