"I'm not sharp," Armstrong admits

Lance Armstrong is trying to start his 2005 season in a low-key manner, using Paris-Nice as a training race, the first step on the long road to July's Tour de France where he'll attempt to clock up a historic seventh victory. But when you've won six Tours de France already, you don't get to do anything quietly, and Armstrong is already having to explain to the press that he's not a contender in the race to the sun.

"It's my first race of the season and I'm not very sharp," Armstrong told AFP after yesterday's stage of Paris-Nice. "I'm probably slower simply because I stayed longer than usual in the United States. When I return to Europe I pay a lot more attention to my form because I train regularly, eat better and have nothing to distract me."

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