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"Ultimately, athletes have to retire. The body doesn't just keep going and going," the 33-year-old Texan said at a press conference.
"I have thought a lot about it, I have gone back and forth. My time has come but I will definitely have the itch every now and again," he said. "My children are my biggest supporters but at the same time they are the ones who told me it's time to come home."
He also said: "I hope to win one more Tour de France. I would love to go out on top." That would make his seventh consecutive victory. Only Armstrong has won the race six times, while three men – Jacques Anquetil (1961-64), Eddy Merckx (1969-72) and Miguel Indurain (1991-95) – won five.
A survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong – who split from his wife Kristin in 2003 and has been dating singer Sheryl Crow, 43, for about a year – recently told the press in Italy that he missed his two daughters and his son and the pressure was taking a toll on him.
On Tuesday Armstrong is due to participate in Tour de Georgia, a six-day, 648-mile race that he won last year.
