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VIDEO: ‘You would foil the system’ – Lance Armstrong reveals how he passed drug tests

Lance Armstrong explained how an athete could evade detection for using performance-enhancing drugs in competition during a recent appearance on comedian Bill Maher's Club Random podcast

Armstrong explained how endurance athletes had been taking erythropoietin (EPO), which involves a doping of the blood. EPO is used to "increase one's red blood cell mass, which allows the body to transport more oxygen to muscles and therefore increase stamina and performance."

"With EPO—which was the rocket fuel that changed every endurance sport—you have a four-hour half-life, so it leaves the body very quickly," Armstrong told Maher. "With a four-hour half-life, you can just do the math."

"But... it's not so much masking," Armstrong explained. "In a sense, you would foil the system, but what I always said—and I'm not trying to justify what I ever said as something I would want to repeat again.

"When I p****d in the cup and they tested the p*** in the cup, it passed. Now, the reality and the truth of all of this is, some of these substances, primarily the one that is the most beneficial, has a four-hour half-life. So certain substances, anabolics, or whatever, have much longer half-lives are easily detectable.

VIDEO: Lance Armstrong | Club Random with Bill Maher