LOS ANGELES, Feb 13, 2009 (AFP) – Lance Armstrong insisted Thursday that his return to cycling will still include a stringent personal anti-doping programme, despite parting ways with scientific expert Don Catlin.

Armstrong’s camp had announced on Wednesday that the seven-time Tour de France champion would work not with Catlin but with Danish scientist Ramsus Damsgaard, who conducts the internal testing for Armstrong’s Astana team.

Armstrong, speaking at a packed press conference to promote the Tour of California which starts on Saturday, said exorbitant costs and scheduling problems made the plans with Catlin unworkable, but vowed he would still have “the most comprehensive anti-doping programme in the world.”

“It was a difficult programme to put together,” Armstrong said. “It was complex. If you match his (Catlin’s) schedule with mine, with traveling all over the world, the testers literally would have been tripping over each other to get to the room.

“That’s not to say we won’t have the most comprehensive anti-doping programme in the world.”

Armstrong still plans to make good on a promise to post results of his personal drug tests online, and on Wednesday posted the results of seven recent blood tests along with a layman’s guide to the data on his website livestrong.com.

He noted that the original plan with Catlin called for him to be tested every three days, something he now believes is overkill especially with the introduction of the International Cycling Union’s most recent weapon against doping – the biological passport scheme.

“I think everybody in doping agrees that’s not really necessary,” Armstrong said.

“Sounds good, but not necessary when you’re talking about the biological passport and other things.

“We’ll certainly be able to prove that the performances that people see, whether they’re slow or fast, will have to be believed.”

The Tour of California will see Armstrong, 37, continue his comeback from a three-and-a-half year hiatus from the sport.

In January he came in a respectable 29th overall, 49secs behind the winner Allan Davis of Quick Step in the Tour Down Under in Australia.

Armstrong, who has been dogged by unproven doping allegations in his career, said he believed cycling’s attempts to deal with dope cheats had brought the sport out of a tainted era.

“It seems like cycling is on its way out of that dark spot,” Armstrong said when asked about the latest steroid revelations in baseball surrounding Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez.

“It’s tough to compare,” he said. “At the end of the night, we (in cycling) get to sleep well knowing we’ve been tested more than anyone else, and we’re more vigilant than anyone else.”