In an interview with Rouleur magazine, Lance Armstrong reveals he has been motorpacing BMC Racing Team rider and 2014 Tour de France fifth place finisher Tejay van Garderen.

Armstrong spoke to Danish journalist Morten Okbo at his home in Aspen, Colorado, where Okbo spent three days with the Texan along with photographer Jakob Kristian Sørensen.

During a car journey to a restaurant, Armstrong spoke to his partner Anna Hansen on the phone, saying “Hi, baby. Yeah. I’m with the Danes now. They’re dressed like the Blues Brothers, man! Crazy shit. What? No. I just motor-paced Tejay for an hour. My ass is about to fall off.”

Armstrong is currently serving a life ban after admitting to doping during all seven of his Tour de France victories and USA Cycling recently prevented him from taking part in old friend George Hincapie’s Grand Fondo last month.

Armstrong has been friends with BMC’s General Manager Jim Ochowicz for a long time and he is now helping his friend’s Grand Tour star, even if the partnership will spark suspicion from some corners of the cycling world.

“The sport is so weak,” Armstrong said of professional cycling. “Just fundamentally weak. From the unity standpoint. From a rider’s standpoint. The teams. They have no authority. No power. So when you have a shit show like we’ve seen with me, someone from the outside can just step in, go back 12 years in time, and royally screw a sport and a new generation that deserves none of this. Cycling and its hypocrisy is off the charts.”

Okbo asked Armstrong if he would change what happened during his career if he could go back and start again. Armstrong replied: “Making the decision to dope? Well, we all made that decision. Once we realised – this was when we arrived in Europe and got our asses kicked – that we had brought knives to a gun-fight, we all went out and got guns. So virtually everybody in the business made that decision.”

“My set of options was to go back to the US and work in a bike shop. Well, I didn’t take that option. So this was the times of the sport. But don’t f**king over-apologise about it. Everyone is now going; ‘oh, I’m so sorry…’ I can’t take that narrative and run with it.”