Armstrong hints at side-stepping Tour de France

The record six-time Tour de France winner has hinted that he wants to beef up his honours list with one-day classics wins.

Record six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has hinted again that he may not bid for a seventh yellow jersey on the race this July as he wants to beef up his honours list with one-day classics wins.

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Armstrong, 33, will continue his hugely-successful career with his new Discovery team, the nucleus of which comes from the US Postal outfit, when the season begins.

However since eclipsing the likes of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain — all of whom won the Tour five times — Armstrong's desire to bid for a record seventh victory seems to be on the wane.

In a recent interview with Dutch television station NOS-TV, broadcast this week but recorded in November 2004, the American said he may now turn his attention to the tough one-day classics such as the Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege or even Paris-Roubaix.

"I don't want to go back," he said when asked if he was to return to the streets of France in July 2005.