Disgraced former seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong is now accusing cycling’s governing body of helping him cover up evidence of his doping. He is alleging that former UCI president Hein Verbruggen instigated a cover-up of a positive test by Armstrong at the 1999 Tour de France

Armstrong made the claim during an interview on Monday with the Daily Mail where he was joined by Emma O’Reilly who was a masseuse for the US Postal team during Armstrong’s tainted reign as Tour de France champion. She was one of Armstrong’s biggest critics during his many years of denials and was often the target of attacks by the American as he lied to protect his legacy and image.

But this time she was beside him when he launched his explosive allegation. Armstrong said in the interview that Verbruggen insisted - quote- "we’ve got to come up with something" -endquote - to explain the one-time hero’s positive test for a banned substance and that the answer was to lie about where the drug came from.

"The real point is that the sport was on life support and Hein (Verbruggen) just said this is your problem, I mean this is the knockout punch for our sport. A year after Festina and he just said we gotta come up a something. So we just? we backdated the prescription." Lance Armstrong said.

"This has probably never been heard by anybody but in 2000 Michele (Ferrari) said, before the jury said, no EPO, he said they’re close on this test, just one transfusion. So we do that. The whole Actovegin story starts, they open the investigation, they seize the samples, they test them for EPO?there is no EPO, because he said no EPO."

Verbruggen, who is still listed by the UCI as its honorary president, has long denied any collusion with Armstrong despite widespread claims the American rider was protected.

If Armstrong’s allegations are true the move allowed Armstrong to continue in the 99 edition of the race where he went on to win the first of his seven Tours, helping revive the sport after doping scandals wrecked the 1998 Tour. The Dutch official, who served as UCI president until 2005, did not respond to phone messages on Monday.