Lance Armstrong coming out of retirement to race 09 Tour de France

[Braen]

Hmmmm...

ESPN - Report: Armstrong to come out of retirement and ride for Astana - Cycling

Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement and compete in next year's Tour de France, VeloNews reported Monday, citing sources close to the situation.

Armstrong, who will turn 37 on Sept. 18, will join the Astana team and compete in five road races, the sources told VeloNews.

He will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France. The sources told VeloNews that Armstrong will receive no salary or bonuses.

Armstrong's manager, Mark Higgins, would not comment.

Sources told VeloNews that Armstrong's comeback will be the focal point of a story in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, to be published later this month.

[Araxen]

Have to wonder how they will work the team. Will AC, Levi, and Lance all contend for the GC or only Lance will and the other guys are support like they've done in the past. I don't think Contador would be happy having to play second fiddle to Lance. We'll see I guess.

[Brutul Tarew Marr]

Can't really see Lance and Contador riding on the same team. I can't picture Lance being a domestique and AC could pretty much pick his team and be the leader as he will be one of the favorites to win it next year so I can't imagine he would ride for Lance's comeback tour. Levi will probably get screwed yet again.

The other part of the rumor is that Lance plans to ride for no salary and his blood test results (Astana regularly tests all of it's riders in addition to the required tests) will be posted on a website.

[Araxen]

As much as I hate to say it, I don't think Levi was ever going to win the TDF with or without Lance on the team. He had his best chance two years ago and Contador beat him out. Contador is just a much better all around rider now.

[Brutul Tarew Marr]

Apparently Astana says if he's coming back it's news to them:

Astana team: No plans for Lance to ride with us

Makes the whole thing seem more likely to be BS, but I'd think if it was Lance would be denying it himself since the rumors have allegedly been going around for a few weeks before Velo-News reported it.

[ToeMissile]

Armstrong did not immediately respond to a text message or voice mails left by the AP

It's gotta suck ass when the media has your cell #.

[Cinge]

Armstrong comes out of retirement

He confirmed it.

[Szlia]

I wonder if "coming out of retirement" is trivial or not, considering the anti-doping regulations.

[Brutul Tarew Marr]

If he joins Astana they have internal doping tests that are much more stringent than the required ones, and the original news release said he planned to have a website with all of his test results posted on it.

[manslayer]

Yeah, but I doubt it would dispel rumors if he doesn't win the race, or at least be damn close. If he is clean and finishes in 40th place it will just cause a shitstorm.

[Morphyous]

Originally Posted by manslayer

Yeah, but I doubt it would dispel rumors if he doesn't win the race, or at least be damn close. If he is clean and finishes in 40th place it will just cause a shitstorm.

He can either finish top 5 in all the races, or help a teammate win the Tour. Sounds pretty good for more awareness for cancer.

[Araxen]

I don't expect him to do much. He did put on some weight when he was in retirement. Will he be able to rebuild that stamina needed for the TDF in a span of a year? It will be another great story if he wins it again and it will piss off a ton of frenchies.

[Mippo]

Pissing off the French is worth it to me. At least he does it through sport and not "diplomacy" like our President.

[Gilgamel]

HGH is a helluva drug.

[Braen]

Originally Posted by Araxen

I don't expect him to do much. He did put on some weight when he was in retirement. Will he be able to rebuild that stamina needed for the TDF in a span of a year? It will be another great story if he wins it again and it will piss off a ton of frenchies.

He has been running marathons and other non-elite bike races in his retirement. he finished 2nd in a non elite 100 mile mountian race this year.

I think he will do great. He even said last years TDF was slower than when he ran it, probably because it was the "Cleanest" TDF in years. I bet he thinks that he could have beat those times.