Cycling's governing body set up a drug-testing system that was designed to fail and allow Lance Armstrong and other riders to avoid detection, said the ex-boss of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Doping officials knowingly ran a testing regimen that the sport's top teams circumvented and where competitors would be tipped off in advance, Richard Pound, who headed up the WADA between 1999 and 2007, told AFP in an interview.

Despite alleging eight years ago that cheating was rife, his complaints to the UCI (International Cycling Union) about the sport's anti-doping measures were repeatedly ignored, Pound said.

"It is not credible that they didn't know this was going on," Pound said.