Six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will make an announcement Monday at the Tour de Georgia news conference in Augusta.

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The 32-year-old Armstrong has hinted in recent weeks that he is contemplating retirement. Two weeks ago he was quoted in an Italian newspaper "In four-and-a-half months it'll be over."

A Cycling commentator for more than three decades, Britain's Phil Liggett said Armstrong will likely retire Monday.

"Knowing Lance, I think [the news conference] will be very brief, 10 or 15 minutes," Liggett said. "Like everyone else, I'm thinking he's saying, 'At the end of the tour and the end season' [he will retire].

"I have no inkling at all. I think he's had a change of attitude. The sport is very hard. He said it himself since he turned pro in '92 that the pressures are different now."

Liggett, who will attend the Tour de Georgia this week for a couple of days next week, is a commentator for the Outdoor Life Network. He will cover his 33rd Tour de France this year.

The trek through France has taken it's toll on Armstrong. He was quoted in the French newspaper Le Figaro earlier this year as saying he was finding being apart from his 5-year-old son and 3-year-old twin daughters, who live in Texas, hard to bear.

"My frequent absences plus the long distances make me feel like saying stop and returning home to be near them," he said.

Armstrong, a resident of Austin, Texas, survived testicular cancer and returned to cycling in 1998. He is under contract with the Discovery Channel team through the end of the Tour de France this summer.

The Outdoor Life Network will broadcast the news conference live Monday afternoon.

Dodge Tour de Georgia

• When: Tuesday-Sunday

• Who: Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team is among six Pro Tour Teams in the 16-team field. International teams include Team CSC, Credit Agricole, Gerolsteiner and Saunier Duval-Prodir.

Where: Stage 1: Augusta to Macon; Stage 2: Fayetteville to Rome; Stage 3: Rome Time Trial; Stage 4: Dalton to Dahlonega; Stage 5: Gainesville to Brasstown Bald Mountain; Stage 6: Blairsville to Alpharetta. The route covers 653 miles.

Previous winners: Armstrong won for the U.S. Postal Service team last year. (Discovery Channel has taken over that team this year.) Chris Horner won in 2003.

Local favorite: Jittery Joe's-Kalahari, based in Athens, with team members Tim Johnson, Jonny Sundt, Trent Lowe, Geoff Kabush, Evan Elken, Bruno Langlois, Christian Foster, Craig Wilcox.