LeMond claim 'nonsense': Armstrong

Cycling legend Lance Armstrong.

AAP

LANCE Armstrong is brushing off as "nonsense" a reported claim by three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond that Armstrong sought to pay an individual $US300,000 ($A339,366) to claim that LeMond used EPO, a banned performance enhancer.

LeMond was quoted as telling the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung's weekend issue that seven-time Tour champion Armstrong tried to implicate him "by all means" in an erythropoietin, or EPO, scandal.

LeMond refused to reveal the identity of the person who was allegedly offered money by Armstrong, saying he still works in cycling.

Armstrong dismissed the claim after completing Sunday's 14th stage of the Tour.

"That's absolutely nonsense. $US300,000 ($A339,366)?" Armstrong said, when asked by The Associated Press about the allegations.

"Come on. I know (about the report). But he says a lot. That's just another thing," he said, alluding to years of antagonism between the two American Tour champions.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, LeMond has been served with a grand jury subpoena as part of a federal investigation of possible fraud and doping charges against Armstrong and his associates.

"One thing I'll say, is that now that he's been subpoenaed," said Armstrong of Lemond, "in the United States, we say: 'The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."'

The federal probe was spurred by allegations made by Floyd Landis, a former teammate of Armstrong on the US Postal team, in a series of e-mails sent to cycling and doping officials this spring.

Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, said the use of banned substances was common at the team. Armstrong has denied those allegations and has questioned Landis' credibility.