Cycling: Armstrong back on Tour trail

Lance Armstrong will return to the European cycling circuit next week in a bid to relaunch his Tour de France preparations following an early setback at the Paris-Nice earlier this month.

Armstrong dropped out of the French stage race, the first of the 27-race Pro Tour circuit, due to illness. However the 33-year-old will get his preparations back on track by racing Sunday's Fleche Brabanconne in Belgium, his Discovery Channel team announced Thursday. Two days later the six-times Tour de France winner, who will bid for a seventh yellow jersey in July, will ride the popular one-day Paris-Camembert race, which takes place in Normandy.

NEW YORK -- Lance Armstrong is considering retiring after he tries for a record seventh straight Tour de France victory this July.

"It's a possibility," Armstrong said Thursday at a Central Park appearance to support New York's 2012 Olympic bid. "I am still thinking about that."