Lance Armstrong will begin to find out whether his gamble to return to the Tour de France is a credible one when the seven-times champion tackles a tough opener in front of Monaco’s casino on Saturday.
Organisers broke with the tradition of short prologues by staging a 15.5-km first act which could allow the stage winner to keep the coveted race leader’s yellow jersey for some time.
“In 2005, on such a course, I would have destroyed the race and made huge gaps,†said Armstrong, who returned to racing in January after 3 1/2 years in retirement.
“It’s a good course for me, hard and technical. I’ve lived here. I know the roads like the back of my hand. But it’s no longer 2005,â€Â … Details
The Tour de France is ready for another edition with Lance Armstrong, and Saturday’s opening stage may show whether he’s ready to challenge for another title.
Armstrong’s 37-year-old legs will be tested immediately when the three-week race begins with a 9.6-mile time trial. The stage will be run along the hilly streets and hairpin turns of Monaco, a Mediterranean principality better known for Formula One than for huffing two-wheelers.
The ride will likely offer an early shakeout of potential contenders who want to at least hold their own in the race against the clock.
Specialists in the discipline include …Â Details
George Hincapie helped Lance Armstrong win seven straight Tour de France titles and believes his old friend could surprise a lot of people this year.
Back competing after 3 1/2 years of retirement, Armstrong will start his first Tour since 2005 on Saturday, in the opening and difficult time trial in Monaco. Many cycling experts are writing off the 37-year-old cancer survivor. But not Hincapie.
“I think he has got very good possibilities,†Hincapie said on Friday. “He has trained very hard, he says he is feeling good. It’s going to be exciting, but I cannot predict what he will do. I wouldn’t put anything past him.â€
Hincapie, who spent the greatest years of his career working for Armstrong, now …Â Details
For those privileged and masochistic enough to take it on, the Tour de France offers private agonies in the most public of settings.
For Lance Armstrong, the price of torture has always been offset by the spoils of victory, as he wheeled an inexorable path toward seven titles and a permanent etching in history.
Yet as he returns after four years to the scene where his legend was created, Armstrong does so with less in the way of obvious tangible recompense for his muscle-wracking output.
Incredibly, this man who blitzed the field for so long with his iron spirit and metronomic cadence enters the 2009 Tour – which starts in the principality of Monaco on Saturday – without any realistic possibility of … Details