Millar calls for UCI changes

Change should be forced upon the International Cycling Union in the wake of the Lance Armstrong doping revelations, David Millar has insisted.

The UCI has ratified the sanctions recommended by the United States Anti-doping Agency, stripping the disgraced cyclist of his seven Tour de France titles and banning him for life.

The governing body has been heavily criticised for its perceived failures in tackling the use of performance-enhancing drugs, but president Pat McQuaid insisted he would not be resigning.

Millar, who describes himself as an "ex-doper" but is now on the World Anti-doping Agency's athletes' commission, said on the BBC Sport website: "Regarding the UCI, there needs to be change. Some will not resign, so they will have to be removed. If they don't and there isn't a change then it would have to be forced upon them.

"Should UCI president Pat McQuaid resign? I dont know. He has to distance himself from former UCI chief Hein Verbruggen and accept the past. We have to get rid of Verbruggen as honorary president.

"He has to show some true innovative steps for moving forward - that would be a big shift. If we want the sport to change we have to help it change within the structure it is in for the time being."

Millar agreed with the UCI that Armstrong "does not have a place in cycling", but warned trying to forget him could lead to the mistakes of the past being repeated.

"If we wipe the slate clean then there is a strong chance we will end up in the same position in 10 to 15 years' time," he said.

Millar, who was banned in 2004 for taking blood-booster EPO, admitted he doubt whether Armstrong would ever admit his guilt.

He said: "I do think that Lance should come clean, but I also know Lance and the sheer scale of what that would represent for him.

"He has had a decade of libel cases and he might even go to jail. It has got so big it might be very complex for him. It is simply not a case of coming clean just to clear his conscience. He would have to do it tactically."

Olympic gold medallist Jamie Staff claimed Armstrong has been made a scapegoat for the doping culture that used to be prevalent in cycling.

Staff won team sprint gold alongside Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny at the Beijing Olympics and now works on the American track sprint cycling programme.

He claimed Armstrong was no more guilty than many other cyclists of his era.

"He's been kind of a scapegoat really," Staff told BBC South East Today.

"A lot of people have done it, probably everyone in his generation.

"If you wanted to finish the course you had to jump on board.

"He seems to be the one everyone is picking on, probably as he was the most successful.

"It was unfortunate, it was just a generation or a few generations who chose to take drugs to basically enable them to recover quicker."

He added: "I'm sure it will hurt the sport for a little while.

"There is a new generation. Have faith that the likes of Bradley Wiggins are clean - I'd bet my life on it. I'd be happy to say any GB athlete is clean."