Paris:
Lance Armstrong didn't want to go out this way.
In his final Tour de France, the seven-time champion popped a tire, crashed and struggled up the mountains. Worse, he seems to be the target of a U.S. federal doping investigation, accused of cheating while a cyclist on the US Postal team midway through his seven-year reign of Tour domination.
One Tour too many? Maybe.
But in classic Armstrong style, he said in an interview with a few reporters Sunday that he has no regrets, and will remember the positives of this 2010 edition _ his 13th Tour _ one day down the road.
During the Tour, newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post published details about an investigation led by Jeff Novitzky, a special agent with the Food and Drug Administration, into claims about Armstrong and doping by former teammate Floyd Landis.
The reports threatened what Armstrong had hoped would be a glorious and possibly victorious ride into his cycling career sunset.
Several former riders who race with Armstrong have reportedly been subpoenaed. Armstrong faced questions about those reports at the Tour. He said he had not been subpoenaed or contacted by Novitzky himself.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, had long denied using drugs until announcing in April that he had doped _ and alleging Armstrong had too. The claim came as Armstrong was riding in the Tour of California.
Armstrong, who denies the claims, blamed Landis for trying to clear his conscience and attempting "to incriminate a half-dozen other people... To me, that doesn't add up."
"That's just somebody who's trying to ruin the lives of others," Armstrong had said on a train from Bordeaux to the Paris area for his final Tour.
He insisted the revelations didn't ruin his last Tour.
"I wouldn't say that it's ruined" Armstrong said. "In 10 years, when I look back on the 2010 Tour, it won't be the memory that I have. Obviously I won't have a yellow jersey to remember _ I'll remember the team, digging deep to win the team GC (general classification). It's significant for us and the sponsor."
"I'll remember having my son here for a week at the Tour," he said of 10-year-old Luke. "I'll remember the bad luck, certainly _ the crashes. But that won't be the thing that I'll take away."
Armstrong also said his life isn't going to change.
The Livestrong wristbands of his charitable foundation will continue to sell; he'll do charity rides; he'll still be a father of four _ soon to be five _ children and don't expect him to stop hanging out with stars like singer Bono and actor Matthew McConaughey.
But it's Armstrong's long-masterful control of his image _ that of a cancer survivor, Tour champion, public personality and pitchman _ that now could to be escaping his grasp.
Ask just about any rider or team manager at the Tour, and it's clear his mark is indelible on this sport. To add to his natural physical gifts, Armstrong and his coaches and staffers tackled the Tour with pinpoint determination.
His imprint will remain on the sport in the use of earpiece radios for riders, training regimens, diet and race strategies, among other things. His success helped convert what was mostly a summertime passion in Europe into a 21st-century business fanning interest from Canada to China.
Throughout the reports on the investigation, Armstrong kept his focus on the race _ even after he had fallen out of contention.
When he came back from a four-year retirement from the Tour to massive hoopla in 2009, and a rivalry with teammate Alberto Contador, he thought he'd be good then but even better this year.
It turned out to be the opposite.
Last year, Armstrong finished an impressive third, came within one second of the yellow jersey he knows so well, and warmed the hearts of French fans who once despised him for his methodical "American" drive to victory above all else.
This year, he was but a mere 23rd, nearly 40 minutes behind Contador, and his best single showing was arguably in the prologue in Rotterdam, where he placed fourth.
From then on, it was all downhill.
Armstrong gradually downscaled his ambitions. At first he wanted to win. Then, he wanted a stage win, which he narrowly missed in an eight-man sprint finish to the 16th stage, the toughest day in the Pyrenees.
When that opportunity vanished, he focused on his RadioShack squad _ which did give him a sliver of glory and a podium appearance by winning the team classification.
In Stage 3, Armstrong blew a tire on cobblestones, and lost time. In Stage 8, he got involved in three crashes that his 38-year-old body just couldn't recover from in time to scale tough Alpine climbs.
"With the first crash, my body never felt the same after that, and the second was the nail in the coffin," Armstrong said. "So you could look at it like that, and yeah, it was one (Tour) too many."
So why not just pull out, to end the agony and disappointment?
That wouldn't be Lance Armstrong.
"I couldn't quit," he said. "I could have said a dozen things were wrong, but that's not the commitment that I made. The result wasn't ideal, but it would have been a serious mistake to quit on the team, to quit on the sponsor, to quit on my fans.
"OK, it's not what they wanted, it's not what any of us wanted, but it would have been far worse to DNF (Did Not Finish)."
He's happy to be out of the limelight, and the competition, for now.
"Right now, I'm going to the Bahamas, I'm gonna put my feet up and forget about riding the bike for a little bit. Drink some cold beer. Build some sand castles with my kids," Armstrong said.
"I got my competitive fix for the next 40 years, it will take until (I'm) about 80 (years old) and then I don't think I will wanna come back."
His 2.5 million plus followers on Twitter? They'll have to wait.
"I'm laying off the Twitter for a while. I gotta go away."
In his final Tour de France, the seven-time champion popped a tire, crashed and struggled up the mountains. Worse, he seems to be the target of a U.S. federal doping investigation, accused of cheating while a cyclist on the US Postal team midway through his seven-year reign of Tour domination.
One Tour too many? Maybe.
But in classic Armstrong style, he said in an interview with a few reporters Sunday that he has no regrets, and will remember the positives of this 2010 edition _ his 13th Tour _ one day down the road.
During the Tour, newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post published details about an investigation led by Jeff Novitzky, a special agent with the Food and Drug Administration, into claims about Armstrong and doping by former teammate Floyd Landis.
The reports threatened what Armstrong had hoped would be a glorious and possibly victorious ride into his cycling career sunset.
Several former riders who race with Armstrong have reportedly been subpoenaed. Armstrong faced questions about those reports at the Tour. He said he had not been subpoenaed or contacted by Novitzky himself.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, had long denied using drugs until announcing in April that he had doped _ and alleging Armstrong had too. The claim came as Armstrong was riding in the Tour of California.
Armstrong, who denies the claims, blamed Landis for trying to clear his conscience and attempting "to incriminate a half-dozen other people... To me, that doesn't add up."
"That's just somebody who's trying to ruin the lives of others," Armstrong had said on a train from Bordeaux to the Paris area for his final Tour.
He insisted the revelations didn't ruin his last Tour.
"I wouldn't say that it's ruined" Armstrong said. "In 10 years, when I look back on the 2010 Tour, it won't be the memory that I have. Obviously I won't have a yellow jersey to remember _ I'll remember the team, digging deep to win the team GC (general classification). It's significant for us and the sponsor."
"I'll remember having my son here for a week at the Tour," he said of 10-year-old Luke. "I'll remember the bad luck, certainly _ the crashes. But that won't be the thing that I'll take away."
Armstrong also said his life isn't going to change.
The Livestrong wristbands of his charitable foundation will continue to sell; he'll do charity rides; he'll still be a father of four _ soon to be five _ children and don't expect him to stop hanging out with stars like singer Bono and actor Matthew McConaughey.
But it's Armstrong's long-masterful control of his image _ that of a cancer survivor, Tour champion, public personality and pitchman _ that now could to be escaping his grasp.
Ask just about any rider or team manager at the Tour, and it's clear his mark is indelible on this sport. To add to his natural physical gifts, Armstrong and his coaches and staffers tackled the Tour with pinpoint determination.
His imprint will remain on the sport in the use of earpiece radios for riders, training regimens, diet and race strategies, among other things. His success helped convert what was mostly a summertime passion in Europe into a 21st-century business fanning interest from Canada to China.
Throughout the reports on the investigation, Armstrong kept his focus on the race _ even after he had fallen out of contention.
When he came back from a four-year retirement from the Tour to massive hoopla in 2009, and a rivalry with teammate Alberto Contador, he thought he'd be good then but even better this year.
It turned out to be the opposite.
Last year, Armstrong finished an impressive third, came within one second of the yellow jersey he knows so well, and warmed the hearts of French fans who once despised him for his methodical "American" drive to victory above all else.
This year, he was but a mere 23rd, nearly 40 minutes behind Contador, and his best single showing was arguably in the prologue in Rotterdam, where he placed fourth.
From then on, it was all downhill.
Armstrong gradually downscaled his ambitions. At first he wanted to win. Then, he wanted a stage win, which he narrowly missed in an eight-man sprint finish to the 16th stage, the toughest day in the Pyrenees.
When that opportunity vanished, he focused on his RadioShack squad _ which did give him a sliver of glory and a podium appearance by winning the team classification.
In Stage 3, Armstrong blew a tire on cobblestones, and lost time. In Stage 8, he got involved in three crashes that his 38-year-old body just couldn't recover from in time to scale tough Alpine climbs.
"With the first crash, my body never felt the same after that, and the second was the nail in the coffin," Armstrong said. "So you could look at it like that, and yeah, it was one (Tour) too many."
So why not just pull out, to end the agony and disappointment?
That wouldn't be Lance Armstrong.
"I couldn't quit," he said. "I could have said a dozen things were wrong, but that's not the commitment that I made. The result wasn't ideal, but it would have been a serious mistake to quit on the team, to quit on the sponsor, to quit on my fans.
"OK, it's not what they wanted, it's not what any of us wanted, but it would have been far worse to DNF (Did Not Finish)."
He's happy to be out of the limelight, and the competition, for now.
"Right now, I'm going to the Bahamas, I'm gonna put my feet up and forget about riding the bike for a little bit. Drink some cold beer. Build some sand castles with my kids," Armstrong said.
"I got my competitive fix for the next 40 years, it will take until (I'm) about 80 (years old) and then I don't think I will wanna come back."
His 2.5 million plus followers on Twitter? They'll have to wait.
"I'm laying off the Twitter for a while. I gotta go away."
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