SALT LAKE CITY — Six days after celebrating his 40th birthday, seven-time Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong will be back on the bike competing in the XTERRA USA Championship at Snowbasin Ski Resort in Utah.

Armstrong confirmed Thursday he will compete Sept. 24 in the XTERRA event that covers a 1-mile swim, 20-mile mountain bike ride and 6-mile trail run.

He scouted the course for three hours last week with the past president of the foundation that sponsors the XTERRA championship, and has tweeted four-time XTERRA world champion Conrad Stoltz about it.

“It seemed like a fun time and the training has been going very well,” Armstrong told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I’ll go out there and have a good time and see how it goes.”

He said it has been 23 years since he’s done any type of triathlon so he said it would be prudent to take it race by race to see if it’s something he wants to pursue more seriously next year, or perhaps even train for longer races.

But he said he has no expectations of winning, though he has been training hard the past eight months or so.

“I have no doubt (Stoltz) is a great athlete, with a lot of experience,” Armstrong said. “I don’t think I’m at that level right now. … It will be fun to go out and race with a bunch of strong athletes. I’m going to go out and try to enjoy myself. … But I don’t go in with any grand expectations.”

The top XTERRA athletes in the world will compete at Snowbasin, including South Africa’s Stoltz, five-time national champ Josiah Middaugh and two-time Ironman World Champion Tim DeBoom.

Stoltz said the course is a good fit for Armstrong as it involves a lot of climbing but is not very technical on the descents.

Asked whether the run or swim will be harder, Armstrong wasn’t sure.

“That’s one of the questions I have for myself,” Armstrong said, noting he has had some issues with plantar fasciitis in his left heel. “We’ll have to see how my swim comes back. When I was a kid, it was one of my strengths, but again that was a long time ago.”