Lance Armstrong feels underprepared for this month's Giro d'Italia and is already thinking about his future as a team owner, the seven-time Tour de France winner said.

The 37-year-old broke his collarbone in a race in Spain in March and has just completed the Tour of Gila in New Mexico to boost his fitness ahead of the Giro starting in Venice on Saturday.

"I would like to be a protagonist. If I only had three weeks more (preparation), it would have been different," he told yesterday's Gazzetta dello Sport, whose parent company runs the Giro.

"After the accident I asked myself, 'dear Lance, what are you doing still on a bike?'. Then I got back on the bike. I needed to recover mentally above all."

Armstrong, who returned to cycling in January after over three years in retirement, picked 2006 Giro winner Ivan Basso as the favorite this time.

He is still targeting an eighth Tour title in July, even though he acknowledged it will be more difficult than ever and has not yet decided if he will continue racing next year.

"It depends on how things go in the next three months," he said.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily May 5, 2009)