Armstrong announcement hints at premature retirement

Originally Posted by steve

What do you guys think of this?

Originally Posted by jhuskey

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I think he may retire directly after this years tour. I am compelled to believe that his sponsor has too much investment involved to let him go before the big show.

Originally Posted by musette

No, LA not retire before this year's Tour. He has committed to riding one more tour, in his contract with Discovery Channel. He will announce that, regardless of whether he wins this year's Tour or not (which he will ride), he is not going for next year's Tour or any subsequent Tours.

He wants to announce before the Tour 2005 because (i) if he ends up losing the Tour (unlikely), nobody will say he retired because he was afraid of retrying to win in 2006, and (ii) if he wins the Tour, people will not expect him to try for eight.

He will not retire. He will try for things like the hour record.

Originally Posted by House

Excellent post. Another idea floated elsewhere is that since his Tour motivation seems a bit lacking (compared to previous years according to his comment) maybe he is going to try the Giro/Tour double. Interesting idea. My thought is that maybe Discovery is going to launch a sports channell with some ccycling shows.

Originally Posted by wolfix

Originally Posted by Flyer

Lance Armstrong & the TDF have been married---happily from the 1999 miracle victory from an Amercian Cancer Survivor through 2004.

This story was so powerful, that everybody forgot that just 11 months before, the TDF was nearly wrecked financially. Had the massive doping stopped? Who cared?

The last man to win the TDF, not named Lance, was Marco Pantani. Remember him? He died at age 34, on Valentine Day 2003. He was a drug addict.

No way the TDF was going to allow a top ten GC contender---or a defending Champion from ever testing positive for illegal drugs. That would take us back to 1998 joke of a race.

Since 1999, LA has had to dodge many doping bullets---and it has cost him losts of energy.

From his National Junior teammates suing USA Cycling---and LA wanting to keep out-of-it legally, to the TUE for corticosteroids at the 1999 prologue, to the suspicious insulin & Actovegin discovered in 2000 to the numerous lawsuits with former employees, well known authors and fellow racers to spats with Greg Lemond, the world is indeed shinking.

In August 2004---after LA's last victory, the UCI finally signed off on the WADA Code of Ethics and their banned substances list.

If the TDF of 2005 permits WADA and local police to be active and free, then LA will not race the Tour. LA cannot compete without lots of privacy.

This decision (and negotiated guarantees) will not be made until the very last minute.

Team Discovery will need an 'A' and a 'B' GC rider in case LA gets ill or decides not to participate.

I doubt that LA will announce his retirement in 2005 at Georgia. But again, his retirement decsion will be based more upon legal discovery and compliance than anything else.

Getting out when the gettins good is always tough.