Armstrong gives up lead, says he'll skip the Olympics

The American dropped behind in a strategic move to conserve energy.
CHARTRES, France (AP) -- Lance Armstrong is looking at the big picture -- on and off his bike.
Armstrong gave up the lead in the Tour de France on Thursday to conserve energy for the finish, then passed up a chance to ride in the Athens Olympics to spend more time with his children.
Seeking a record sixth straight Tour de France title, Armstrong willingly ceded the lead to Frenchman Thomas Voeckler. The 32-year-old Texan was 24th in the fifth stage Thursday to drop to sixth overall -- 9 minutes, 35 seconds behind Voeckler.
After finishing, Armstrong said he would skip the Athens Games to spend more time with son Luke and twins Grace and Isabelle. The three-time Olympian said the five months of training he already has spent away from his children were enough.
"It's really hard to do and so I want to go home," said Armstrong, third in the time trial in the 2000 Sydney Games.
"I've done the Olympics many times and if I don't have 100 percent motivation for something that's an important event, a very important event, then I don't want to take somebody else's spot."
Strategy
The decision to concede the lead was part of his grand strategy in the three-week race. When the race veers into the Alps and climaxes with a punishing time trial, Armstrong wants to be ready.
Until then, Armstrong is willing to let second-tier riders such as Voeckler and his Brioches La Boulangere team top the leaderboard. Armstrong is confident he'll be back in front by the time the race finishes in Paris on July 25.
"Tactically, it's a great move for us with Brioches La Boulangere in the yellow jersey," Armstrong said. "Voeckler is a good young rider. He's French and I think it's a good thing."
With wind-swept rain and crashes troubling riders, Armstrong and his U.S. Postal Service team decided not to chase as Voeckler and four other riders broke away from the main pack.
Armstrong said he believed Voeckler might be able to hold the lead into the Pyrenees at the end of the second week, but expects the Frenchman to buckle under the race's grueling demands.
"A team like Brioches will work really hard to defend," Armstrong said. "We're confident with the gap where it is. This bike race is so much different from any other race, the intensity of the climbs is a lot greater than anything."
Voeckler acknowledged he's no match for Armstrong.
"Oh, I don't think he's worried about me," he said.
Stage victors
Australia's Stuart O'Grady of Cofidis, who escaped the pack with Voeckler and three others, won the fifth stage, a 124.6 mile ride from Amiens to Chartres. The breakaway riders finished 12:33 ahead of Armstrong and the pack.
O'Grady dedicated the stage victory to his team, which has been embroiled in a doping scandal that led race organizers to ban British star David Millar.
"It's just been an emotional roller-coaster," O'Grady said. "We really needed this win."
Armstrong is most concerned about Germany's Jan Ullrich, the 1997 winner, and challengers such as Italy's Ivan Basso of CSC and Phonak's Tyler Hamilton of the United States.
Ullrich trails the Texan by 55 seconds, a significant but not insurmountable gap.
"A minute's a lot in my opinion," Armstrong said. "The only reason that I say that is that if I reverse the roles, I would be thinking, 'Oh, man, I'm already a minute down.' "