Viva Lance Armstrong

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.