Former world champion rider Lance Armstrong is fighting cancer.
Armstrong, who won the 1993 world road race title when he was 21, faces 12 weeks of chemotherapy for cancer in his abdomen.
The news came in a teleconference Tuesday from the American's home in Austin on the eve of the world road-race championships starting Wednesday in Lugano, Switzerland.
The cancer was discovered five days ago when Armstrong had an operation to remove a malignant tumour from his testicles in a hospital in Austin.
``My state is considered to be between average and advanced,'' said the 25-year-old Armstrong, twice a Tour de France stage winner. ``I am determined to beat this, and continue my racing career.''
Physicians have told Armstrong he has a 65 to 85 percent chance for full recovery.
``There may come a time when I may not race again at my top level, but it is my intention to be in the peloton in 1997,'' Armstrong said.
``I'm going to begin riding next week to stay in some sort of shape. When this thing is gone, I'll resume training like I always do.''
Armstrong said he has had one enlarged testicle for many years. But the two-time winner of the Tour DuPont said he was never concerned until recently when the condition became painful and he began to spit up small amounts of blood.
Armstrong placed second in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and claimed Fleche Wallone, two prestigous one-day European races, earlier this season.
A five-year professional, Armstrong recently left the defunct U.S-based Motorola team and signed a two-year contract with Cofidis, a new French team. Team officials said his contract will be honoured.
``I could have been riding all of my pro career and as an amateur with cancer,'' said Armstrong. ``Now I just want to be back on the bike, outside and with my friends.''
The 25-year-old, who has returned home to Texas, has told his COFIDIS team he intends to be back for the end of the 1997 season.
"Lance remains our team leader and we are looking forward to winning with him again in 1997," said team manager Cyrille Guimard.
Armstrong has undergone surgery to remove a tumour but a scanner revealed the cancer has spread to his lower abdomen and he will now have chemotherapy for a minimum of 12 weeks.
He has been told he has between a 70 and 90 per cent chance of fully recovering and returning full-time to professional cycling.
The Irish government said on Tuesday it had agreed to provide the two million Irish pounds ($3.21 million) in state funding needed to host the official start of the Tour.
It is planned to bring the Tour -- won by Roche in 1987 --to Ireland for four days when a time trial through Dublin and two stages will be held.
A statement said the Irish government was now awaiting a formal decision on their bid from the Societie de Tour de France.
This year's Tour started in the Netherlands and also includes stages in Italy and Spain.
Tourism Minister Enda Kenny announced he had managed to secure the government's agreement to spread the cost over two years among his own ministry and the agriculture, education and environmental ministries.
"The Tour de France is one of the world's great annual sporting events and the promotional possibilities for Ireland arising from the Tour would be significant," Kenny said in a statement.
"It would ... enhance the profile of Ireland through international media coverage," he added, noting that the race is watched by some 960 million people worldwide in more than 100 countries.
The Irish would over four days host the prologue time trial through Dublin and the opening two stages in the south and southeast of the country.
The Societe Tour de France has already invited Ireland to stage the start of the Tour, although a formal decision has still to be made.
The 37-year-old, yet to make up her mind about retiring, won both the time-trial and road race at last year's championships in Colombia.
She will have Russian Zulfia Zabirova, who denied her both Olympic gold medals in Atlanta, as her main rival.
"Losing out in the hour record attempt hurt my confidence," Longo said. "A time-trial is really hard and you can never know how it will turn out."
Zabirova was eighth last year behind medal winners Longo, Clara Hughes of Canada and Katryn Watt. Australia's former Olympic road champion misses the championships because of a hamstring injury.
It has been a bad year for Watt, who allowed herself to become embroiled in a court battle to ride the pursuit, time trial and road race at the Atlanta Olympics in July.
She won a court appeal on the day of the opening ceremony but trailed in 19th in the road race, eighth in the pursuit and fourth in the time trial.
Richard Virenque, Laurent Leblanc and Laurent Jalabert all hope to win Sunday's men's road race in the absence of five-times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain of Spain and Swiss Olympic champion Pascal Richard.
Virenque and Leblanc clashed angrily during this year's Tour de France and Jalabert is keen to get something out of a season which started so brightly and ended on a sour note. He was forced to pull out of the Tour de France and finished an also-ran in the Tour of Spain.
For the first time a men's under-23 event will be raced at the championships when a 31.6km time-trial will be held on Wednesday.