Armstrong Unlikely to Opt for Magnificent Seventh

PARIS, 7 November 2004 — American cycling legend Lance Armstrong looks set to shelve plans to attempt to win a seventh successive Tour de France, the Texan told L’Equipe newspaper yesterday.

The 33-year-old said that he had other targets to achieve in the sport before he retired and with the course for next year’s race being seen as not especially suited to his strengths he admitted giving it a miss was a real option.

“Honestly I do not know if I will be at the starting line for the Tour next year,” said Armstrong, who is due to present an MTV award alongside his rock star girlfriend Sheryl Crow later this month in New York.

“There are lots of other things that I wish to accomplish in cycling before I retire.

“And I think that 2005 would be the right time to do that. This year I achieved a dream — I won my sixth Tour and I made the history books.

“Now it is time to go onto something else,” added Armstrong whose successful battle against cancer has proved an inspiration to all sufferers of the disease.

Armstrong insisted that if he was not there next year it wasn’t because he was snubbing the race because of its disadvantageous route.

“Of course I still love the Tour. “It is still to me the most famous race in the world.

“If I am not there next year it is not because I am punishing the race or its fans.”

Armstrong said that his targets now were the one day classics — he won the 1996 Fleche Wallonne and was twice second in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege (’94 and ’96 before being struck down with cancer — and the world record for the hour.

He insisted that none of the controversies surrounding him this year including the book L.A. Confidential which alleged on the evidence of a former masseuse from his US Postal team that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs and the court case in Italy with his doctor Michele Ferrari, who was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence for malpractice in October, would influence his decision to race in France.

“None of those would be a factor in my decision to race in the Tour,” he said.

However he left the door slightly ajar over competing in the Tour.

“For the first time in a long time my schedule will not be set 100 percent and I would like to have the freedom and flexibility to opt for no matter what race.

“If it is to be the Tour, I will decide when I want to, and if it is the Paris-Roubaix I will do the same thing.”