Retired seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong says he does not miss competitive cycling and hated the sport during the final few years of his storied career.

"I don't miss it at all," Armstrong said in a wide-ranging interview in the latest issue of Men's Journal. "I miss the training. I miss the team atmosphere. I miss my guys.

"But the last couple of years I would even say I hated racing. The only peaceful times were when I was at training camps, alone or with a few team-mates, or at the races, in the hotel room, at the dinner table with my guys.

"That's the stuff I really love. I won't miss the Tour."

Armstrong, 34, quit cycling last year after winning the Tour a record seventh consecutive time.

He back-pedalled a bit on his claim he will not miss the world's most famous cycling race, which begins on July 1.

"The Tour is all I did," he said in the interview.

"It's all I lived for. It's probably not fair to answer that question until we get to July.

"I mean, in July I may start pulling my hair out, because it's the one race that I lived for. But I suspect not. I know that I can never go back."

Armstrong said he "completely let myself go" during a six-month period following his retirement but has now started working out again.