Time to Ride Off Into the Sunset

The setting was pedestrian -- a hotel conference room in Augusta, Ga., a city famous for green golf jackets, not yellow cycling jerseys.

But on Monday afternoon that’s where Lance Armstrong, America’s greatest cycling road racer, announced he would retire from the sport on July 24, the day the 2005 Tour de France ends with the ceremonial ride along the Champs Elysees.

Armstrong’s voice quavered with emotion as he said, “After a lot of thought in considering this season, after I decided to refocus on the Tour, this Tour de France will be my last race as a professional cyclist. July 24 will be my last one, win or lose. Having said that, I am fully committed to winning a seventh Tour.”

Armstrong, who turns 34 in September, won a record-setting sixth consecutive Tour de France last July, and ever since there has been speculation about his retirement from his favorite race and from the sport.

At his final Tour news conference last July, Armstrong hinted he might skip the 2005 Tour and test himself at another of cycling’s grand tours, the Giro d’Italia or the Spanish Vuelta.

But on Monday Armstrong said there would be no more racing -- “none at all” -- after July 24.

He will fulfill his two-year contract with new U.S. team sponsor Discovery Channel by riding in the 2005 Tour and then plans to help team director Johan Bruyneel develop Tour winners.

When Armstrong announced he was riding the 2005 Tour, he also committed to riding the biggest U.S. race, the Tour de Georgia, which begins today in Augusta. And that’s what brought Armstrong to a podium in a hotel two miles from Augusta National a week after the Masters had ended.

“I have thought a lot about it,” Armstrong said. “I’ve gone back and forth. There are many, many races I think about and dream about, races that motivate me. But ultimately athletes have to retire. I’ve been doing this race for 14 years, competing professionally for 20 years, and the body doesn’t keep going and going. My time has come. There are other things I need to do in life.”

Although he wasn’t the first American to win the Tour de France -- Greg LeMond won the grueling, three-week marathon three times -- Armstrong made an emotional connection with U.S. sports fans because of the aggressive way he rode the race and because of his miraculous comeback from cancer.

In 1996 Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain.

His doctors gave him no more than a 40% chance of survival. Not only did Armstrong survive, he came back to his sport with a body reshaped and leaned by the ravages of chemotherapy and with a spirit rejuvenated by his brush with death.

Armstrong began his record-breaking string of Tour victories in 1999. Only four other men -- Belgian legend Eddy Merckx, Spanish ironman Miguel Indurain and French heroes Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault -- had won five Tours. But last year, at an age when the others faltered, Armstrong dominated the race, winning by more than six minutes.

But he was also dominating a sport that had been tarnished by drug scandals. Although a two-year French investigation into Armstrong’s training methods yielded no evidence that he had used illegal substances, and although he has never failed a drug test, Armstrong is still confronted by rumors that he is not clean.

Armstrong said Monday the constant scrutiny and drug testing played no part in his decision to retire.

“It’s been more than six years of that,” Armstrong said. “The questions started as soon as I came back and won. The very next year there was a full-blown investigation for 18 months that turned up nothing, but the questions and suspicion has continued. It’s very tough to get away from, but it is something I learned to live with and it has absolutely no effect on this decision.”

Instead, Armstrong said, retirement comes from a desire to spend more time with his three children. Armstrong has a son Luke, 5, and 3-year-old twin daughters, Grace and Isabella, with his ex-wife, Kristin. Kristin Armstrong and the children live in Austin, Texas, where Armstrong also has a home. Armstrong also spends substantial time with his girlfriend, rock singer Sheryl Crow.

Armstrong said that when he went to Europe this year to race for a month, he realized it was too difficult.

“Last year I spent a period of two months and then three months without them,” Armstrong said.

“But this year was something like I had never experienced. They are at an age now where they change daily, if not hourly, and to be away for one month, it’s grueling.”

Armstrong has also started the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research. The foundation has sold more than 40 million yellow rubber wristbands printed with the slogan “Livestrong.”

If there is one thing Armstrong hasn’t done it is to leave an American heir apparent.

Bobby Julich, who became the first American to win the prestigious Paris-Nice race last month, is 33. Longtime Armstrong teammate and friend George Hincapie is 31. Levi Leipheimer, who has a pair of Tour de France top-10 finishes, is 31, and Tyler Hamilton, 34, who finished fourth at the Tour two years ago, on Monday was suspended for two years for blood doping.

“I don’t see anyone coming on,” Julich said Monday in Augusta.

“That is a problem. There’s a big gap between us, guys who are 32, 33, 34 years old, and the growth we should see.”

Armstrong said he hopes to help the Discovery Channel team “develop another Tour de France winner.”

But not until he wins one more.