Armstrong Is All Business Entering Final Tour de France
Lance Armstrong arrives at the press centre in Challans for a news conference before the 92nd Tour de France cycling race on Thursday.
(Stefano Rellandini - Reuters)
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Friday, July 1, 2005
CHALLANS, France, June 30 -- As Lance Armstrong descended from the Discovery Channel team bus into the usual scrum of cameramen Thursday afternoon, he turned to team spokesman Dan Osipow and said, "Are you ready for this again?"
The mini-mob, six or eight deep, shuffled slowly backward through the parking lot, lenses trained on every step of Armstrong's short stroll into the exhibition hall where hundreds of journalists awaited him.
Armstrong looked none the worse for the minor spill he took recently and appears ready. Ready for the daily craziness outside the bus, ready for the physical challenges of the next three weeks and ready to fill in the last pages of a bulging scrapbook.
He said he will allow himself a few nostalgic moments, but he won't stop to smell the sunflowers at the expense of trying to extend his Tour de France victory streak to seven.
"Every day will be special, every finish will be special, but I can't let that feeling and that emotion interfere with what I'm trying to do here," Armstrong said. "For me, it's not a promenade around France. I'm still trying to win."
Having cleared that up, Armstrong said he is far more at ease now than he was last year at this time.
"I had the impression that I was up against, not a demon, but . . . some of the greats of cycling had never been able to win a sixth Tour," he said. "Many people said that means it's simply not possible, for some other reason, a higher reason. That's an incredible burden to get rid of.
"I'm not chasing history, I'm not chasing a record, I'm not chasing a legacy. I'm just here to have a good time and enjoy my last Tour and enjoy the good form I think I have."
Armstrong proceeded to answer questions ranging from the pragmatic to the fantastic, including a query about whether he was interested in running for president.
"Look, I don't like this setting," he said, indicating the news conference. "So why would I be the president and have this setting every day? It's true that things like politics and the good of a country or a community interest me. But I don't know that I'm cut out for politics.
"In any case, I need a few years to just relax and really evaluate what I want to do with my life, if that's a life in the public eye or not in the public eye. I have no dreams of the White House."
Looming more significantly in Armstrong's waking moments is Saturday's opening time trial course, an 11.8-mile spin from the coastal town of Fromentine over a bridge and along a straight, flat road on the Ile de Noirmoutier that is exposed to the elements.
