He’s p*ssing me off already and it hasn’t even started yet. Every media outlet is obsessed with thinking that Lancy’s going to take an 8th title. No wonder Contador wants move to another team asap.
Lance, please call it a day and do something else. Celeb golf maybe?

What would you do?

At least he’s done a couple of more races this year than usual.

No chance. Not a sniff. There are three riders just in his own team that have a better opportunity. Especially Contador, who will let him have it as soon as they get to Andorra on stage 7.

I reckon he’ll jack it before the 3 weeks are up

To be fair, I didn’t think he’d complete the Giro – and he did so in some style. so I was wrong there – but there’s a massive difference between that and actually winning TdF

Clearly he is good enough to ride in the pro peleton, so if he wants to why shouldn’t he? I’m fairly certain he hasn’t considered your feelings on the matter daisy and I’m also pretty sure he wouldn’t give a rats ass. It is not up to him to mediate the output of the worlds press and the fact that it’s not always very well informed is hardly his problem.

Contador will have to get used to the constant speculation and media attention, as it comes with the territory of being the best stage racer in the world. When Lance Armstrong was winning his tours there was always a huge focus on who was going to beat him this year (Beloki, Simoni, Ullrich etc.) and how they were going to do it.

Matt

WGAF

Well said matt 🙂

Presuming he’s clever enough to have never been caught doping – I suppose there’s always the chance that as others get caught with their noses in the medicine jar, he could inherit the win

I wonder how many this year will get the ride to the local gendarmerie?

I think he’ll get a top 3 this year. Phenominal athlete IMHO (with or without “outside” assistance)

IMMO it’d be pretty awful if he did win, but I am much more intereted in quite how many portly Lances on madones and full Astana kit I’ll see out riding at the weekend.

uplink – Member
Presuming he’s clever enough to have never been caught doping – I suppose there’s always the chance that as others get caught with their noses in the medicine jar, he could inherit the win

I wonder how many this year will get the ride to the local gendarmerie?

I reckon 5 will be about par for the course (whole teams being booted doesn’t count, except maybe Saunier Duval last year). There are probably at least that many who are being ‘monitored’ as a result of previous tests and the biological passport scheme.

Matt

what people forget is that he is the most competitive, motivated and egotistical man on the planet, he would not of entered if he thinks he doesn’t stand a chance. He was getting stronger in the last week of the Giro, and considering the second last stage of the TdF is alp duez it could make for a very interesting finish.

personally i don’t think he can win it, I for one am taking advantage of the british bookmakers limited knowledge of cycling. 17/1 for menchov, after winning the Giro? Yes please….

No wonder Contador wants move to another team asap.

Does he? Astana are going to have a very eventful tour methinks, fireworks at bedtime. I hope contador stays put, if only to enjoy pissing all over Lance.

Saw an ITV advert for their tour coverage last night…..Lance returns…can he do it…..bla bla bla

Surely their advert should have been based on Mark Cavendish for the UK audience and can he win as many stages as last year….

every item in the press that mentions lance needs a footnote:
OTHER CYCLISTS ARE AVAILABLE

considering the second last stage of the TdF is alp duez it could make for a very interesting finish.

Nope, its Ventoux. At least I hope so, or I’m going to spend a few lonely hours on its slopes …

Surely their advert should have been based on Mark Cavendish

plebs don’t understand anything other than yellow jersey = winning though …

Didn’t he ride the Giro to promote his Cancer charities?

Seemed to work well for the first week until someone upset him and he sulked for the rest of the race.

David Millar on Armstrong on his chances in this years tour:

It is very hard for other cyclists to relate to Lance Armstrong. We respect him – there is no doubt about that – because of what he has achieved and how he races his bike. He is clearly one of the greatest bicycle racers in history. But outside of that, it is very hard for us to even fathom what he achieves. It is, even for us, his peers, unfathomable what he does.

Before Lance came along, cycling tended to be dominated by riders like Miguel Indurain: very elegant and classy on the bike, silent and dignified off it, the classic great cycling champion. Often that was because they came from simple backgrounds and weren’t very articulate, or they didn’t have many opportunities to speak. Lance from the start was the super-confident American whose style of racing was very domineering. He rarely gave gifts to riders and would take great of pleasure in crushing whoever he was racing against. Not many of the great champions do that.

I turned pro on a team with him in 1997 when he was coming out of his cancer. He must have been at his weakest then – bald, no eyebrows, nothing – but he still had an air of confidence. He was cocky and brash, the all-American sporting jock. He was almost the Lance Armstrong that he is now in fact, just without all the Tour de France wins.

Our relationship has always been close but it is quite complex. We are very different people. I’ve not got that absolutely deep-down need to win. I enjoy it, I love racing, I love winning, but it doesn’t control my whole life. I guarantee that you have never met anybody like him. He is very good at channelling every single element of his being into doing one thing. I don’t know him well enough to know if that costs him anything else in the rest of his life, but he is as close as you get to somebody who is on another level to most human beings. He doesn’t make mistakes, Lance, ever. If he decides to do something, he ends up doing it.

But he is also complex and paradoxical. He can be very unforgiving, and yet at the same time he can be incredibly kind and empathetic. It’s an odd mix. During the Tour de France, just after I’d been banned, he rang me up to make sure I was OK. I think he’s always treated me as a wayward little brother – we understand each other and we agree to disagree.

People talk about his effect on cycling, and when he was riding the Tour de France, he was omnipresent. It was always, “How is Lance going to react? What’s Lance going to do?” And it got to the point towards the end of those seven Tours where everyone knew how it was going to happen: his team, US Postal, were basically going to control the race, he was going to do well in the first time trial, he was going to smash everyone in the first mountain stage and then defend. So everyone’s race became based around Lance’s tactics and style of winning the race. Since he’s left, the race has become a lot more open, less predictable.

I was very surprised when I heard he was coming back. It is easy to stop loving the dieting, the lifestyle, the training, and pushing through the difficult moments when it’s not happening. But all of us love the racing when it’s going well – that’s why you do it. The only thing I can think of is that he missed the racing, which is understandable, because in order to win seven Tours, he has to love it deeply.

His performance at this year’s Giro d’Italia was immense. You have to put it in perspective: he had not raced for three years and he returned to the highest level and in no way made a fool of himself. It wasn’t an easy race, physically or mentally, and he didn’t throw in the towel; in the last week he was even getting stronger. He really believes he is going to be a force to be reckoned with at the Tour, there’s not the slightest iota of doubt there. That is what I think almost everybody does not understand: it’s not ego with Lance, it’s just utter self-belief.

I don’t think he will win this year’s Tour de France, but I wouldn’t put money against him either. He is capable of anything. But I think he is going to be a bit surprised by Alberto Contador. I’ve never seen a rider like him – he is definitely the greatest I’ve ever seen, and I think he will be the greatest ever Grand Tour rider. He’s very dignified, but he’s as driven as Lance, if not more so, and he has that anger streak with possibly more talent. Alberto is on an absolute mission and I think he wants to crush Lance at the Tour. It’s going to make for a great race.

Lance’s legacy is huge – it goes way beyond one race, one Tour de France. And he has the opportunity to cement his legacy, ironically, in defeat. I think this year’s Tour is going to do his popularity in France a world of good, because if he doesn’t win then the French will love him, as long as he shows character and resilience and races with a bit of panache. It will show another side of the man that I’m sure exists.

Taken from here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jun/28/lance-armstrong-comeback

Good comments from Millar.

He won’t win, but it’ll be a damn good race.

anotherdeadhero, sorry of course it is, I always get those two mixed up….

enjoy it out there, should be an amazing race

Oh I will 🙂 Hope to catch them on the Champs Elysees on the Sunday too. Provided I’ve been moderate with the vino collapso in the interveening period 😉

Contador wins nothing by beating Lance. Only beating Lance at the top of his game means anything IMO. Im a huge fan of Lance. I dont think hes going to win it, he’ll finish in the top3 which is immense and brilliant.

For years he raced against smackheads so has nothing to prove. That other dickhead American though, he should have taken his medicine quietly when he was caught.

Smackheads? Even I could beat a smackhead! Not exactly performance ehancing!.

BTW, Top 3 is just dreaming, imo.

Contador wins nothing by beating Lance

apart from the Tour de France??

Contador is the best cyclist since Merckx. He’s going to end up with so many grand tour victories. Unfortunately, he’s not a loud-mouthed yank, so the plebs won’t realise that he’s actually a far superior rider than Armstrong ever was.

Armstrong in the top 3? no chance. Levi will be up there, but Armstrong ain’t got a hope in hell unless Contador and Levi explode spectacularly.

An un-abashed, make-no-apologies-for-it Lance fan here. The guy has done more to raise the profile of cycling than anybody else in the last decade. The whole guilty by association/suspicion/not being french thing is a crock of shite. Lance is the Man U of cycling, you either love him or are bitter and twisted about his success.

At the same time I’d love to see Cav get the Green jersey.

Leipheimer will collapse on one stage and lose too much time.
I think that Armstrong will attempt to put one on Contador in the Pyrenees and Contador will respond and crush him, resulting in Armstrong retiring with something like a cold.

For years he raced against smackheads

Didn’t a lot ride with him at US Postal?

Well he wont win. He’ll finish in a respectable place. You must admit, the guy is evergreen though.

numplumz
What Numplumz said. My feeling exactly.

Can’t see him winning. Is guaranteed that even as a domestique he’ll set the race on fire. Really looking forward to seeing the Schleck boys doing their thing now they’re ‘off-leash’.

Has Lance recovered fully from his shattered collar bone?

I think his original goal to promote cancer awareness is being pushed to one side by the media and maybe himself a bit.

I hope he does brilliantly-will he win? he’s just come off a big break but I wouldn’t be shocked if he did!

It’s amazing he’s come back to race at the highest level and after a break at his ‘age’ for racing. An inspiration to many.

I see him using it as a warm up to next season if he’s going to go for a Tour win.

I’ll be keeping an eye for Cadel Evans as he was injured last year and he’s just done an excellent race showing his form not too early for Le Tour.

Daisy Duke-you’re just a girl

Lance is just using Le Tour to prepare for the Leadville 100 😉

Come on – no one likes Evans

Although I do enjoy watching some of his girly, petulant journo slapping moments

Cadel Evans will never win it because he doesn’t know how to attack. Big chinned wheel sucker.

Evans isn’t helped by his team being more useless than 8 STWers out on a baggy shorted, visored up road ride. They’ve left Charlie Wegelius out for god’s sake.

Cadel Evans will never win it because he doesn’t know how to attack. Big chinned wheel sucker.

So you didn’t watch the Dauphine then? He attacked every day there.

The bigger issue than Lance for me at the Tour is all the armchair critics who only watch the one race a year, and base all their assumptions on any riders abilities on three weeks out of an entire year. Glenp has just provided a perfect demonstration of this.

Oooh. Bitch.

I did follow the Dauphine, but only on internet news daily. He did show well. Clearly I should have been more full in my criticism. If he attacks in the Tour I’ll be very quick to retract my comment. Until then he’s a big chinned wheel sucker. And Lance still ain’t gonna win.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Armstrong is raising the profile of the team before he and Bruyneel buy Astana out, weren’t they in difficulties earlier on in the year?

And what better kudo’s for future sponsors in the US of A than former 8 time TdF champion and current?