Wow! How is this for a big story? Velonews is reporting that sources close to Lance Armstrong are saying that he is coming out of retirement to competing on the professional circuit again next year.
The story indicates that Lance will be riding for the Astana Team and will race in five road races. Those races are Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France. The story goes on to say that the news will be made official in an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair. Making things even stranger, is that Velonews, a trusted source for information on the cycling front, claims that Lance will raise for “no salary or bonuses.”
Ok, the first thing I did when reading this was to make sure the calendar didn’t say April 1st. Lance turns 37 in a few weeks, and hasn’t competed on the World’s Stage for three years, but obviously his competitive spirit still burns, witnessed by his decision to run marathons and compete at the Leadville 100.
The report of him racing for no money makes me take pause on this as well. Obviously Lance doesn’t need the cash, and perhaps his salary and bonuses would go directly to his Livestrong campaign instead, but it just seems odd that he’d come back, now of all times, to ride for free. I have to admit though, it would be good for the sport of cycling, at least here in the U.S., where few have followed the Tour since his retirement.
For now, I’m going to take this story with a big grain of salt, but I have to admit that I said “Holy Sh*t!” out loud when this story was passed my way. It would definitely be big news for cycling. So, do you think he can get back to a competitive level after three years off? I’d never count him out, and it would be fun to watch.
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