French great says cycling will recover

ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) –

French cycling legend Bernard Hinault is pictured at the podium at the end of the fourth stage of the Tour Down Under in Adelaide on January 25, 2013. Hinault insisted Friday the sport will recover from the Lance Armstrong doping controversy.

French cycling great Bernard Hinault insisted Friday the sport will recover from the Lance Armstrong doping controversy.

Hinault, who won the Tour de France five times in the period from 1978 to 1985, was speaking at the UCI season-opening Tour Down Under in Adelaide.

“Lance Armstrong isn’t the first (rider) to have hurt cycling,” he said through a translator. “You have to fight against this (problem).”

Armstrong last week admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his record run of seven Tour de France wins.

Hinault also asked why there was so much focus on cycling when other sports had problems with doping as well.

“We talk a lot about cycling, but why not about other sports?” Hinault asked. “The day that all sports are treated the same way, we wouldn’t be the black sheep.

“There are troubles in every sport, but it’s always cycling that comes up,” he added.

Hinault, who still rides about 200 kilometres (124 miles) every week, said it was up to other international federations to make sure their sports were clean.

“The international (federations) should be doing their job the same way in controlling it — the same way in every sport.”