Lance Armstrong feels he is the scapegoat of a sport that has always been subject to cheating, the disgraced American cyclist said on Wednesday before criticizing International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid.

Asked whether he felt he was "the fall guy for an entire sport/system", Armstrong, who was banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, told Cyclingnews (www.cyclingnews.com) in an exclusive e-mail interview: "Actually, yes I do. But I understand why. We all make the beds we sleep in."

Armstrong, 41, confessed to doping this month, saying he used performance-enhancing drugs from the mid-1990s to 2005.