Speculation is mounting that Lance Armstrong will soon announce his retirement. The six-time Tour de France winner has scheduled a press conference in the United States on18 April before the Tour of Georgia.
“You will all know a little more in two weeks’ time,” Armstrong said after finishing 24th in the Paris-Camembert cycling race on Tuesday. “I have to talk to the press and I have to tell them something important.
“The only thing I know for sure is that I will be starting the Tour de France this year. But it could be the last.”
The American went a step further when he told the Gazzetta dello Sport, “Four more months and it’s over ...,” the paper reported yesterday.
“I miss my kids and all the pressure I have on me is taking its toll,” he said.
Armstrong signed a two-year contract with his new team sponsor, the Discovery Channel, before this season. However, the contract requires that he only race one more Tour de France.
Armstrong has had a tough start to the season. He began by retiring from the Paris-Nice race a few days after finishing 140th in the prologue, which he called “the worst time trial of my life.”
Armstrong also finished well back in the Brabant Arrow on Sunday. He performed better in the Paris-Camembert, but he is still not in top form and said he will only support teammate George Hincapie in the Tour of Flanders, a major single-day classic, on Sunday.
In what may be taken as another possible sign of his pending retirement, Armstrong made a surprise trip to Lucca, Italy, on Wednesday to try and clear up one of the many legal cases in which he is implicated, the Gazzetta reported.
Armstrong is being investigated for pursuing Italian rider Filippo Simeoni during an early stage breakaway in last year’s Tour de France and reportedly threatening Simeoni for testifying about doping abuse in the trial of an Italian doctor associated with Armstrong. The doctor, Michele Ferrari, was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence in October for sports fraud and malpractice, prompting Armstrong to announced that he was ending his relationship with Ferrari.