Six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong announced after Tuesday's Paris-Camembert race that he would hold a press conference before the Tour de Georgia, which begins April 19.
An announcement about an announcement. What does Lance want to tell us? Here's a short list:
He's retiring from cycling at the end of the year;
He won't try for a 7th Tour de France victory afterall;
He will try for a 7th Tour victory, but it will be his last;
He's going to concede the Tour to Jan Ullrich (doubtful, actually Ullrich thinks he can win this year);
He is (is not) going for the one-hour record this year;
He's going to marry singer Sheryl Crow;
He's glad to see so many people at the Tour de Georgia.
The list could go on and on. It seemed like just yesterday — actually it was last month — that everyone was speculating about whether Armstrong would ride the Tour this year. That ended when Armstrong announced he would try for a 7th Tour victory with the new Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Now the cycle is started all over again, reports Reuters.
French sporting publication L'Equipe says there is suspense about Armstrong's retirement at the end of the season. Another French newspaper, Le Figaro (which translates to “The Barber” in Babelfish), relates that Armstrong doesn't like being separated from his children.
“… most painful to me, when I am in Europe, remains to be separated from my children who are in Texas. These repeated absences, the accumulated distances make that at one time I want to say stop, return to be close to them.”
As for how long he can remain “the boss” of the peloton:
“The key is not to cling too long a time, but to know to stop with the signal.”
So I guess we wait and watch to hear Armstrong's next move. In the meantime, he'll be riding in support of team mate George Hincapie in the Tour of Flanders, which runs Sunday.
Armstrong, who dropped out of Paris-Nice early in the season, has focused on training, according to the Guardian. He finished 24th — just 7 seconds behind the winner — in the Paris-Camembert on Tuesday.
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