Armstrong's decision to go for his seventh Tour title must have his new team sponsor, Discovery Communications, relieved. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

He sounded like a man in a rut. The day before he stood in a familiar yellow jersey on the podium on the Champs Elysées last July, Lance Armstrong cast doubt on whether he'd be back this summer to go for his seventh straight Tour de France victory. He spoke of how he would love to have a go at the Giro d'Italia someday -- "It's a beautiful race" -- or perhaps the sport's other grand tour, the Vuelta España. He mentioned his desire to take a crack at a venerable velo-mark called the one-hour record.

All of that was put on the back-burner last week when Armstrong announced he would defend his yellow jersey this summer. That sigh of relief was from the headquarters of Armstrong's new team sponsor, Discovery Communications, whose top executives did not commit to spend a reported $30 million so that Armstrong could take a pass on the Super Bowl of cycling.

"I realized that the Tour is the one race that makes me tick," Armstrong told Sports Illustrated in an e-mail Tuesday. "It's the one that wakes me up early. And it's the one, when I'm suffering like a dog in training, that makes me dig that much deeper. Nothing compares."

Those close to him point out that, at 34, the Texan is deep into middle age for a pro rider. If he takes a year off from the Tour at this point, who knows how his body will respond when he comes back? If Armstrong was going to try to win one more of these bears, said Dan Osipow, director of communications at Tailwind Sports (part owner of the Discovery team), "it makes a whole lot more sense to do it in '05 than to take '05 off and do '06."

Another pleasant surprise for Stateside cycling fans was the announcement that Armstrong would defend his title at the Tour de Georgia in April. There had been talk of him skipping that week-long event to compete in a handful of Europe's spring classics: Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. While he is still scheduled to ride the Tour of Flanders on April 3, his participation in other spring classics is in doubt. The fact is, when it comes to Tour preparation, Armstrong always has preferred stage races to one-day events.

"Georgia was a great race last year and very tough in terms of its route," Armstrong wrote. "I hope to defend there, although I think it will be tougher this year."

Lance and girlfriend Sheryl Crow turned heads at the Grammys (Crow's canary yellow, abdomen-baring Roberto Cavalli gown made it clear that she's been getting some time on the bike herself). But to the widespread perception he is a tad behind in his training, Armstrong rebuts, "Perhaps I have been out of the races for awhile but I have not missed many days off the bike, in the gym, on the trails, etc. I'd go nuts if that were to happen."

That Armstrong is getting a late start on his Tour preparation is cold comfort to his rivals. "The guy loves to train more than he loves to race," Osipow said. And Armstrong knows, better than anyone on the planet, how to prepare for this race. Whether it be training in the mountains, embarking on his storied recon missions, memorizing the time-trial layouts or knowing every contour of every climb, one thing is clear: "He's not going over there to half-ass this thing," Osipow said. "He's going to win."