In an emotional announcement on the day before the Tour of Georgia was to begin, six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong told the world what many had already presumed. Following the Tour de France in July, the captain of the Discovery Channel cycling team will retire from the sport. Although still young at 33 years old, Lance admitted that the biggest reason he was retiring was that he wanted to be spend more time with his three children.
"My children are my biggest supporters, but at the same time they are the ones who told me to come home. They made me retire," Lance said at the news conference in Augusta, Georgia.
Despite the public acknowledgment that this will be his last Tour de France, Lance was quick to make the point that it is still one he intends to win. “Number seven doesn’t have the cache of number six,” he admitted. “But I still love what I do. I still kill myself on six hour bike rides and come back wasted. One final one and then I stop.”
Amid much speculation that his retirement would be the theme of the announcement, there were still many people who were not convinced that one of the greatest cyclists of all time would, or could, call it quits. Some people presumed that Lance was calling the press conference to tell the world that he would race the Giro de d’Italia, one of the three Grand Tours that he has yet to compete in. Teammate and close-friend George Hincapie added that: “If I were to guess, he’ll say he’s running for governor of
For Trek’s team liaison Scott Daubert, a person who has spent countless hours helping Lance prepare for each season, Lance’s announcement brought a sense of sadness, yet anticipation as well. Noting that Lance has a contract with Trek through 2010 and that the Texan still has an interest in the team, Scott instead looked at Lance’s retirement as a chance to elicit even more information on improving the race bikes.
“I just look back and think about how much Trek has been pushed by Lance to improve the product,” said Daubert as he drove back to his hotel in
As if to emphasize both Lance’s competitiveness and technical prowess, Daubert led on that even with the announcement, the team was still planning on visiting the wind tunnel one more time before the Tour. “Lance called for the date in the tunnel,” Daubert added, “Right there that should tell you something about his goals for a seventh win!”