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Lance Armstrong coming back

Wumpus

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
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Six Shooter Junction
Lance Armstrong is getting back on his bike, determined to win an eighth Tour de France.

Armstrong's return from cancer to win the Tour a record seven consecutive times made him a hero to cancer patients worldwide and elevated cycling to an unprecedented level in America.

The Tour "is the intention," Armstrong's spokesman Mark Higgins told The Associated Press, "but we've got some homework to do over there."
Added Bill Stapleton, Armstrong's lawyer and longtime confidant: "We're not going to try to win second place."

What team he'll ride with and in what other races he'll compete are undecided, Higgins said.

"I am happy to announce that after talking with my children, my family and my closest friends, I have decided to return to professional cycling in order to raise awareness of the global cancer burden," the 36-year-old Armstrong said in a statement released to The Associated Press. "This year alone, nearly eight million people will die of cancer worldwide. ... It's now time to address cancer on a global level."

In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Armstrong told the magazine he's 100 percent sure he's going to compete in the Tour de France next summer. "I'm going back to professional cycling," he said in the story posted Tuesday on the magazine's Web site. "I'm going to try and win an eighth Tour de France."

On Monday, the cycling journal VeloNews reported on its Web site that Armstrong would compete with the Astana team, led by close friend John Bruyneel, in the Tour and four other road races -- the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia and the Dauphine-Libere.
But there are no guarantees Astana would be allowed to race in the 2009 Tour. Race officials kept the team out of the 2008 Tour because previous doping violations.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/09/09/armstrong.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
 
Wumpus

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
Here's the vanity fair article:

Then, in almost robotic fashion, he said, “I’m going back to professional cycling. I’m going to try and win an eighth Tour de France.”

For a moment I gaped at him. Was I being punked? (Armstrong would later tell Doug Ulman, the president and C.E.O. of L.A.F., that my eyes bulged into saucers, like some boinged-out character in a Ralph Steadman illustration.) As the news sank in, though, I realized he was deadly serious. I knew from Armstrong’s memoir, It’s Not About the Bike, that his VO2 max (the gauge by which the human body’s capacity to transport and use oxygen is measured) is superhuman, his ship-sail lungs uncommonly efficient.
But at age 37? A 2,000-mile, 23-day race, much of it uphill? By next July? I asked him, rather ungraciously, if he wasn’t too old to get back into shape that quickly.

He laughed. And he was off and running. “Look at the Olympics. You have a swimmer like Dara Torres. Even in the 50-meter event [freestyle], the 41-year-old mother proved you can do it. The woman who won the marathon [Constantina Tomescu-Dita, of Romania] was 38. Older athletes are performing very well. Ask serious sports physiologists and they’ll tell you age is a wives’ tale. Athletes at 30, 35 mentally get tired. They’ve done their sport for 20, 25 years and they’re like, I’ve had enough. But there’s no evidence to support that when you’re 38 you’re any slower than when you were 32.
“Ultimately, I’m the guy that gets up. I mean, I get up out of bed a little slow. I mean, I’m not going to lie. I mean, my back gets tired quicker than it used to and I get out of bed a little slower than I used to. But when I’m going, when I’m on the bike—I feel just as good as I did before.”

I wasn’t totally buying it. “Are you really 100 percent going to race in the Tour de France?”

“One hundred percent!” he replied. “One hundred percent!”
Click to expand...
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/09/armstrong200809
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
I hope Contador kicks his a** :) Should be one hell of a show down
 
maddog17

maddog17

Turbo Monkey
Jan 20, 2008
2,817
106
Methuen, Mass. U.S.A.
so in order to make the world aware of cancer he's going to race again??!!?? ummmmm... why can't you just go on a world wide tour and talk to people in large groups, do an ad campaign with the W.H.O. or some other group and spread the message that way. him racing again doesn't make me want to care about cancer anymore or less. what a putz!!
 
Cant Climb

Cant Climb

Turbo Monkey
May 9, 2004
2,683
10
I miss the old days when everyone doped and we all kind of knew it......the playing was level, just a different kind of level.

Contador has a few skeletons in his own closet.

I hope he makes a go at it.
 
loco-gringo

loco-gringo

Crusading Clamp Monkey
Sep 27, 2006
8,887
14
Deep in the heart of TEXAS
maddog17 said:
so in order to make the world aware of cancer he's going to race again??!!?? ummmmm... why can't you just go on a world wide tour and talk to people in large groups, do an ad campaign with the W.H.O. or some other group and spread the message that way. him racing again doesn't make me want to care about cancer anymore or less. what a putz!!
Click to expand...
It's unpossible to fuel an ego by just trying to help. Don't you know anything??? :busted:
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
Part of the reason Armstrong always did so well was because his team was so strong....he had guys riding for him who were capable of being podium contenders themselves. It will be interesting to see what team, and how he does on a team that isn't as strong (I doubt they can put it together in such a short period, unless he hooks up on CSC)
 
Silver

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
ire said:
Part of the reason Armstrong always did so well was because his team was so strong....he had guys riding for him who were capable of being podium contenders themselves. It will be interesting to see what team, and how he does on a team that isn't as strong (I doubt they can put it together in such a short period, unless he hooks up on CSC)
Click to expand...
Armstrong's biggest advantage was the fact that he is utterly ruthless and extremely mentally tough. Those are two traits that probably haven't changed.

Should be interesting, at the least...
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,504
20,303
Sleazattle
Silver said:
Armstrong's biggest advantage was the fact that he is utterly ruthless and extremely mentally tough. Those are two traits that probably haven't changed.

Should be interesting, at the least...
Click to expand...
I wonder if he will bring his crew of lawyers and threaten to sue anyone who might beat him.:monkey:
 
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