Viva Lance Armstrong

photo by: alex_lee2001

With their first Astana training camp together starting today in Spain’s Canary Islands Contador had some interesting words regarding the team leader position and his teammate Lance Armstrong.

“If we both stick to our schedules, there won’t be a problem¹”

It’s a curiously worded statement since neither riders official schedules have been announced yet. Contador has stated many times though his main objective for this season is the Tour De France and as of now it’s the one race that’s noticeably missing from Armstrong’s rumored schedule. So in other words Alberto seems to be saying “If Lance decides to race the Tour there will be a problem”. Is Contador ruling out the possibility that Lance could even ride the Tour as a supporting man for team Astana without causing problems?

Alberto did sprinkle in some lines of praise throughout the interview saying “I’m convinced he (Lance) will strengthen the team” and “For me, it’s a pleasure to be in the same team as a man whom I have always admired.¹”. “Be in the same team” though also strikes me as an odd way to phrase it (though this could be just a language translation issue), instead of something like “ride alongside”, “work together in mountains”, or “challenge myself against the best rider in Tour history”.

Astana training camp runs through December 8th in Spain and I’ll keep you posted with any news as hopefully reports of Armstrong’s racing condition will also to be reported.

1. AFP, Condador Unsure of Armstrong Level [↩] [↩]

photo by: joshgray

In a recent interview picked up by Bloomberg news Astana manager Johan Bruyneel has set the stage for a Armstrong/Basso battle at the 2009 Giro!

I brought up the possibility in a post a few weeks ago but was unsure whether Lance and Ivan were gunning for a Giro win. Well Bruyneel laid it out pretty clearly that he thinks Bass will be:

“It’s going to be Basso’s main goal of the season,” Bruyneel said. “He’s been busy with his comeback from the moment he was suspended.” ¹

Now its up to Lance to decide whether the Italian showdown will take place. Lance is fully committed to ride, but there is still a chance that if he were feeling especially good he might take it easy in the Giro for a chance at an eighth tour win. We’ll know more about his condition soon with training camp for Astana starting in California and Armstrong’s Tour Down Under comeback debut in early January.

1. Bloomberg News, Armstrong’s Main Giro Rival to Be Basso, Manager Bruyneel Says [↩]

photo by: dangiles73

In a article just posted over on the Guardian¹ they bring up a new challenge in Lance’s unlikely comeback, violent fans. Anyone who’s watched a major cycling race, especially one with a mountain finish along narrow roads knows how close cycling fans get to the action and how intense they can be. Still it’s rare for fans to cross the line from intense to intentionally aggressive. In fact many more fans seem to get tangled with their own heroes by getting overzealous in their encouragement. It’s not unheard of though and Lance recounted one of the most famous examples of fan aggression in the Guardian interview:

photo by: _Wildberry_

“Eddie Merckx would have won six Tours if he hadn’t been punched. It happens to the best of us. Eddie broke a rib, fell over and was out of the race. I try not to think about that stuff.”¹

Merckx was punched by an angry french fan during stage 14 of the ‘75 Tour and went on to loose the race and retire two years later.

Anger with french cycling fans is nothing new to Armstrong though. French fans have certainly had there chances during Lance’s seven years of tour domination and from what I could find there hasn’t been anything more serious than verbal abuse and profane chalk displays on the road.

“There’re some aggressive, angry emotions [in France]. If you believe what you read my personal safety could be in jeopardy. Cycling is a sport of the open road and spectators are lining that road. I try to believe that people, even if they don’t like me, will let the race unfold.¹”

It’s definitely not a world wide concern as Australian Stuart O’Grady has said that Aussie fans are ecstatic to have Armstrong back and watch him in the Tour Down Under this January. I expect this will turn out to be non-issue in the comeback and while disgruntled French (and other) fans may be more vocal I’d expect they will continue to respect the event by not interfering directly with the competition.

1. Guardian.co.uk, Armstrong fears violent attack on Tour return [↩] [↩] [↩]

photo by: richardmasoner

Recent news in Italy from the Gazzetta dello Sport and reported by the Associated Press¹ are claiming that Lance and his manager Johan Bruyneel will meet with Tour de France organizers before he makes a decision on whether he will ride in 2009. It’s a question that’s been a mystery every since he announced his comeback. Apparently the two sides had tried to set up a meeting shortly after the event announcing the 2009 Tour route², but that meeting never materialized. It’s still unclear when this reported meeting will take place but it seems the result could be a huge factor in determining his status for the 2009 Tour.

1. AP, Report: Armstrong to meet Tour de France officials [↩]
2. Cycling Weekly, ARMSTRONG TO MEET TOUR OFFICIALS BEFORE DECIDING ON PARTICIPATION [↩]

photo by: adambowie

The 2009 Astana Cycling team has assembled one of the most talented squads in modern cycling history.  The newest member is a longtime friend of Lance and former Discovery Channel teammate Yaroslav Popovych.  Popovych is an extremely gifted rider who won the Best Young Rider designation in the 2005 Tour and stage winner in 2006 was a huge asset for Discovery helping lance to his last three Tour wins.

Bruyneel has to be licking his chops with all the weapons he has for the upcoming season.  

2009 Astana Roser¹: 

• Lance Armstrong
• Assan Bazayev
• Jani Brajkovic
• Alberto Contador
• Valeriy Dmitriyev
• Aleksandr Dyachenko
• Jesús Hernández
• Chris Horner
• Maxim Iglinskiy
• Roman Kireyev
• Andreas Klöden
• Berik Kupeshov
• Levi Leipheimer
• Steve Morabito
• Dmitriy Muravyev
• Daniel Navarro
• Benjamín Noval
• Sérgio Paulinho
• Yaroslav Popovych
• Bolat Raimbekov
• Gregory Rast
• Sergey Renev
• José Luis Rubiera
• Michael Schär
• Tomas Vaitkus
• Andrey Zeits
• Haimar Zubeldia

1. PPOL, Popovych Joins Astana [↩]

photo by: per0ni

With the Giro d’ Italia still seven months away, the anticiapation for the event continues to rise.  This year promised to be a big one for the Giro if for nothing else than it will be the celebration of the Giro’s 100th anniversary.

While anniversary guaranteed some additional coverage and excitement it’s who’s riding (and who’s not) in this years edition of the Giro that has the cycling world buzzing.  Last month Lance Armstrong joined reighning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and former Giro winners Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego when he accepted his invitation to the 2009 Giro. 

It’s a decision that’s added another layer of complexity to the some of the biggest remaining question marks surrounding Lance’s comeback… Will he ride the 2009 Tour de France? And, if he does race will it be as team leader?

A Basso vs. Armstrong battle (unlikely Sastre will vie for overall win) in the Italian mountains could make for a very dramatic event and a throwback to 2005 when Basso finished runner up to Lance in his final Tour.  It’s still unclear whether either will be pushing to win the Giro or instead using it as training for the Tour de France.  Part of the speculation stems from the fact that the last rider to win both the Giro and the Tour in the same year was Marco Pantani in 1999.  Common wisdom since ‘99 seems to be that a team leader with serious hopes of winning the Tour either skips the Giro (as Lance did in his run of seven wins from ‘99-’05) or plays a supporting role attempting to propel a teamate onto the podium.  Sastre for one has made it clear he’s using the event as his major preparation for the Tour and to test the legs of his new team.

As for who’s not racing? Namely one man, Alberto Contador.  The 2007 Tour de France champ and Lance’s Astana teamate has decided to skip this years Giro to focus on the Tour.  Contador, who is the defeding champion at the Giro d’Italia, says he’ll race the Vuelta d’Espana instead as preparation for his main focus on the Tour de France.

Contador’s decision and the class of the Giro field are giving more strength to a growing theory, and one even Armstrong has cited as a possiblity, where Lance would make the Giro the main focus of his 2009 racing comeback.  Althought it’s not a surprising move by Contador to skip the Giro (he is named by almost all as the tour favorite) it does leave the door wide open for Lance.  With such a strong Astana team behind him, and likely one much less prone to conflict around the team leader position (Lance would still be up against his strong teamates of Levi Leipheimer and Andres Kloden), it could be a great opportunity for Lance to pick up a grand tour win and major attention for his fight against cancer

If Lance could make the podium, or win in any of the major Grand Tours this year it would have to be considered by most to be a successful comeback after three years off.  With his continued talk of a multi year comeback and insistence that he doesn’t need the Tour to define him in his return the Giro is looking more and more like Lance’s main event for 2009.