Tour de France leader Bradley Wiggins has reiterated his anti-doping stance and said he would 'potentially stand to lose everything' if he took performance-enhancing drugs.

With numerous instances of doping in cycling and many Tour winners in recent years having tested positive or been placed under investigation for drugs offences, the race leader is often asked for their opinion on the matter.

Wiggins launched an expletive-laden rant when questioned after his opening day in the yellow jersey on Sunday, before a more considered response followed after Wednesday's 10th stage.

The 32-year-old Team Sky rider, three times an Olympic champion, six times a world champion and fourth in the 2009 Tour, has long been an anti-doping advocate, but felt he should not have to justify himself just because he was wearing the maillot jaune.

Wiggins insists his stance has not changed since the 2006 Operacion Puerto scandal and 2007, when he was embarrassed to be a member of the Cofidis team expelled from the Tour when Cristian Moreni tested positive.

In a blog on www.guardian.co.uk, Wiggins wrote: "The reasons why I would never use drugs have become more important. It comes down to my family, and the life I have built for myself and how I would feel about living with the possibility of getting caught.

"I wrote it all in my autobiography back in 2008 and I still feel the same now. It's just I say it less. If I doped I would potentially stand to lose everything."

Wiggins believes cycling is cleaning up its act.

He added: "I do believe the sport is changing, if you look at what Ryder Hesjedal did at the Giro and what Chris Froome did at the Vuelta.

"As that change has happened, my performances have gone up, and at the same time I've begun to work far harder than I did before.

"I'm not claiming the sport is out of the woods but doping in the sport is less of a worry to me personally, it's less at the forefront of my mind, because
I'm no longer getting beaten by people who then go on and test positive or whatever.

"If there is a difference in my attitude now compared to back then, it's that I'm more focused on what I am doing, I pay less attention to what's going on outside my bubble because I'm not coming second to riders who dope."

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