Wiggins doubts Armstrong will admit to cheating

Britain's cyclist Bradley Wiggins attends the presentation of the itinerary of the 2013 Tour de France cycling race in Paris October 24, 2012. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Britain's cyclist Bradley Wiggins attends the presentation of the itinerary of the 2013 Tour de France cycling race in Paris October 24, 2012. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

PARIS (Reuters) - Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong may never admit to taking performance enhancing drugs after being banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, Tour champion Bradley Wiggins said on Wednesday.

PARIS (Reuters) - Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong may never admit to taking performance enhancing drugs after being banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, Tour champion Bradley Wiggins said on Wednesday.

"You realise as you grow up that Father Christmas doesn't exist. That was always the case with Lance," Briton Wiggins told reporters at the 2013 Tour presentation ceremony.

Asked if Armstrong - who has always denied any wrongdoing - should admit he cheated, Wiggins said: "I think so, definitely.

"But everyone knows he's a stubborn man. He has too much to lose, but the evidence speaks for itself. It looks overwhelming."

On Monday, the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's decision to ban the retired American for life and nullify his results from August 1998 onward because of testimony from team mates that he doped.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Mark Meadows)