We want to hear what Walsh says! Lance was calling out to him saying he’ll talk to everyone when he comes back.

And Kimmage! Poor Paul. After getting his mojo back with Garmin this’ll kill him.

with over-exaggerated voice accents of the quoted? Or is it just the voices in my head?

sometimes i just love the French…

he was like the only clean guy in that Festina team (from sporza)

“He makes cycling ridiculous”
Even Christophe Basson, a former cyclist who in 1999 accused Armstrong of doping, is not welcomed. “This is sad. I do not understand this. He is chasing me even a little scared.”

“And furthermore, he will probably go to Astana. That is ridiculous. This comeback Armstrong will certainly not make him bigger, I think.”

heh, apparently the tour starts in monacaco. sigh..

all fixed now :-)

but those that are bitter or angry are little people – strange

José Luis Rubiera (Astana):

“It’s great news for cycling. Armstrong has got the character to do it and he would draw in millions of supporters again. At a sponsorship level, I can’t see it doing anything but good. On one level, you have to ask if it’s possible to come back at 37 to win the Tour. On the other hand, knowing Lance, anything is possible. He won’t be coming back to finish second. […] It would be a very interesting challenge. I was going to quit but I could go on for another year if Lance asked me to do so.”

“I’m focused on winning the Tour of Spain but of course I would welcome him to the team. Assuming I race the Tour de France next year, it will be to try and win it.”

“Just seeing Lance Armstrong on television makes my hair stand on end. Armstrong is in love with this sport. It will be tough for him to come back but if that’s the case it’s because he thinks he can do something.”

“Personally, I don’t believe in these sorts of comebacks. Beyond that, I prefer not to comment.”

Mark Cavendish:

Rising star Cavendish, 23, from Great Britain, said Armstrong’s return gives him the opportunity to ride with a childhood hero. “When I was starting cycling, that was the start of his domination of the Tour de France,” he said. “It was quite special. I don’t often get star-struck, but that might be one of the times.”

Thomas Dekker:*

“It will be good for the international cycling seen as a racer as he gives the sport still more prestige and respect. I am convinced that he still is capable of winning the Tour. Because Lance Armstrong is an exceptional rider.”

*Will someone please give this boy a job?

Even Boogerd has a reaction.

Boogerd kan het fietsen moeilijk missen Maakt na Lance Armstrong ook Michael Boogerd zijn rentree? De eind vorig jaar gestopte Boogerd verbaasde vandaag zijn gehoor tijdens de Vuelta-presentatie in Assen. Spreekstalmeester Herbert Dijkstra vroeg hem in het licht van de rentree van Armstrong of Boogerd een Vuelta-start in 2009 kon uitsluiten. Zijn antwoord: ,,Zeg nooit nooit." ,,Ik zit de laatste tijd niet zo lekker in mijn vel en zit weer veel op de fiets. Ik merk dat het toch is wat ik het liefste doe. Als Lance me nou in de ploeg zou vragen…"

Can u translate it?

Matthew Fishbane‘s da:

It [the eight billion cost of the LHC] hasn’t matched the price of getting Botox shots. Lance Armstrong’s gonna earn about 8 billion, now, right? Do you know how many times the candidates mentioned science in their acceptance speeches? Obama, once, in passing. McCain, nunce.

Will be on Newstalk 106 here in Ireland within the hour. http://www.newstalk.ie and I think they’re streaming.

This from the man who thinks the peloton is going slow enough even for someone like him to win a stage:

I just think it’s fantastic, you know, a champion like that before retirement, he obviously feels he can still win at the top level.

Does he need to do it? I can’t see what he’s got to gain, to be honest. I think his record’s there, he’s got legendary status and all he can do is go downhill. So, on a personal note, I think he should keep his wheels hung up and look at what else he may be able to do to support cycling.

He’s opened himself up to a transparent anti-doping policy. So it can only be good for he the sport. If he’s opening all the results of his drug testing and he does get the same results as he did a few years ago that’s perfect, isn’t it?

(his ghost writer)

"Lance’s enemies and critics, who are legion, will sneer that his accomplishments were dope-fueled and that his comeback is vanity-driven, and even some of his admirers will question whether it’s sensible to try to add to his record of seven Tour de France victories after three years away from the bike. But the fact is that cancer and improbable odds are the keys to his fierce personality, they’re what propelled him over 2,300 miles and up mountainsides in the first place. ‘Watch, I’m gonna win it again,’ he said, after the first one. ‘Know why? ‘Cause everyone says I can’t.’ "

“It’s sad for guys like Cadel [Evans]. Lance is at another league. Everybody will have to get so much better — that’s if he comes back as the old Lance. I don’t believe Cadel can beat him if he comes back anyway near as he was. I can believe at this stage that is what they are saying, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at the last minute [they say], ‘Oh yeah … something’s come up … my shoes don’t fit. I won’t be able to do it this year or something.’”

“He can be polarising. There may be a different view in Europe about this than in the US. It’s a provocative issue.”

is – as detailed in the Book “Tour de Force” – that Armstrong spends a lot of time reading the news about him and watching who says what. It motivates him and he does hold grudges.

…at this point consists almost entirely of an interview with Gérard Dine, “doctor and doping specialist” (!!!). His claim: due to the dispute between the UCI and ASO, and the consequent lack of systematic controls outside the races, Armstrong could be “clean” during the race, but have doped all the way through his training. Dine consequently wants to “take advantage of Armstrong’s return to put into place a ‘biological passport.’” Don’t know that that means…

As far as the tour organizers not letting him in: “The Tour de France is the image of France in the world. How could they not invite a hero of the struggle against cancer?”

Very muted coverage at Le Monde, nothing other than what is already known.

(a former USPS rider)

“Physically, Lance can definitely do it,. The hardest part will be to go back to the mental discipline of training, eating and sleeping with 110 percent commitment. Snapping your brain back into a mode of being perfect all the time is difficult. If Lance was trying to win the [track] match sprint, I would say, `No way.’ But the Tour de France isn’t about that. It’s about endurance. It’s about efficiency. And that can grow as you get older.”

“Lance is a different beast. And you know he wouldn’t be signing up for this if he wasn’t confident about not embarrassing his legacy.”

The bookies already have him at 3-1 to win Le Tour.

“We are offering a price offering a stakes refund if Lance doesn’t take part, because at this stage it is unclear just how seriously he intends to take his comeback and not impossible that it could all be a cunning plan to help publicise his charity. However, plenty of Armstrong fans are happy to back him on that basis.”

“[Armstrong’s return is] good news for cycling. [He] is well capable of winning the Tour again.”

“Age is not an impediment – he is a stubborn racer and when he gets it into his head he has the force of personality to do it.”

Contador:

It’s true that if we both want to win the Tour a complication could arise, but that’s something about which, at the proper time, we’d have to weigh all the different factors. We don’t have to think about that right now.

Valverde (this one’s awesome):

It’s surprising since he’s already won the tour 7 times. As a cyclist I don’t understand it, but every person is a world unto himself and he can do what he wants.

Sastre:

At the moment I’m not thinking about whether he’ll be a rival next year. I’ll think about it next year, depending on how he’s doing at that point in the season. […] His chances won’t depend only on himself but on the team he has around him.

Poll on a French Web site with over 5000 votes www.orange.fr

Not the greatest questions but the message of the results are clear:

Roughly translated:
What is your reaction to the grand return of Lance?
    

5 Percent: This decision will create a huge shock in the Peleton
(Cette décision va créer un véritable choc dans le peloton)
     
68 percent . With all the Doping Supsicious against him, this return is not good news for cycling (Avec tous les soupçons de dopage à son encontre, ce retour n’est pas une bonne nouvelle pour le cyclisme.)

2 Percent He is abve all invested in a mission to sensitize public opinion against the plague of cancer (Il se sent avant-tout investi d’une mission: sensibiliser l’opinion du public au fléau du cancer.)
      
8 Percent He is taking a big risk announcing at 37 to want to agin win the TdF (Il prend un gros risque en annonçant à 37 ans vouloir encore remporter le Tour de France en 2009.)
   
4 Percent His thirst to win and his competitive spirit are so strong that he couldn’t tsay retired any longer (Sa soif de vaincre et son esprit de compétition sont tellement forts qu’il ne pouvait pas rester plus longtemps à la retraite.)
      
14 Percent If he refinds his form, his competition have some worrying to do. ( S’il retrouve son niveau, la concurrence a du souci à se faire.)

“Why is everybody so impressed? I’m surprised in a way that I don’t know what he’s got to win from it. If somebody feels like racing just let him race. [But] I wouldn’t do it, I think.”

“He has to know by himself whether he wants to come back. But I think for his career it’s better to stay [out], to quit with it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“He has the same age as me, so for him to do such a thing is quite a nice thing. He has always trained when he needed to and done the necessary regimes. I know him well and how he is. He’ll do all he needs to get the results.”

Bruyneel:

I’ve spoken with Contador, who is the best, and I’ve told him the news of Armstrong’s return, we have all the confidence in the world in Alberto and with respect to Lance we’ll have to see.

Bruyneel, on LA riding for Astana:

I spoke to Lance yesterday and at the moment nothing is decided. He wants to ride for free, without pay, and he’ll have no problems finding a team, but our relationship is clear: I won’t allow him to ride for another team.

Bruyneel, on LA’s future performance:

It’s unknown not only because of his age but also the years he’s been outside of competition, I know he’s raced, that he’s ridden his bike outside the world of professional cycling. He’s very motivated but we have to be realistic. I liked very much the reasons he gave me for his decision to return.

by the way here’s the url:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Bienvenido/sea/elpepudep/20080910elpepudep_10/Tes

Thank God

…isn’t completely up to date content-wise but has the best headline: “Lance Armstrong, a comeback that many fear”!

http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/37/armstrong-comeback?page=1

The quotes have quite a bit reading between the lines in them like:

Prudhomme told The Associated Press that Armstrong and his team must follow all the drug-testing rules “that are much more strict than they were before.”

What does he mean his team? Astana follows Ramsgaard, no? I will say I have seen no data like I have for the other three teams with exception of Gusev getting canned, but with no data.

Prudhomme:

“Suspicion has followed Lance Armstrong since 1999, everyone knows that,”

And

“All the Tour riders, and Lance Armstrong if that is the case, they will have to submit to rules that were harder than they were before, because it is necessary,”

Does anyone think that retroactive tests will be required for his participation?

the tvnews spoke again (about 5 times this year) about cycling, about Lance Armstrong rerturns. At least the reason wasn’t doping…

LA would be very welcome to CSC if he wanted to……..

this article earlier today had Armstrong at 16:1, but now directly at their site I see they’ve upped Lance to 5:1

Contador Velasco, A 3.25
Armstrong, L 5.00
Evans, C 8.00
Schleck, Andy 8.50
Sastre, C 9.00
Klöden, A 15.00
Kohl, B 16.00
Menchov, D 16.00
Gesink, R 18.00
Valverde, A 18.00

“My guess is that he’s struggling with the cold turkey after being top of the world in cycling. Suddenly you’re out in the real world – what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Sportsmen who have retired can look back through rose-coloured spectacles and forget how hard it was, how small some of the differences were. It’s almost sad in some ways. You can’t spend your whole life being a beauty queen – it’ll start to fade. There are other things in life. At some point, you have to move on.”

Adri van Houwelingen

“In my opinion it’s impossible to win. It’s impossible to come back on the level he had before.”

Jose Luis Rubiera

“Armstrong has got the character to do it and he would draw in millions of supporters again.”

Davide Rebellin

“On one level, you have to ask if it’s possible to come back at 37 to win the Tour. On the other hand, knowing Lance, anything is possible. He won’t be coming back to finish second.”

Roger Hammond

“Cycling is never easy and to win the Tour is never easy, but he’s definitely not over the hill and he’s still a very good athlete. He’s got the experience of winning seven Tours so he knows what it takes. OK, 37 is getting old. But I know a rider [Italian Fabio Baldato] who was 39 and in the top 10 of the Paris-Roubaix this year, which is one of the toughest one-day races in the world.”

Jim Ochowicz

“He didn’t just lay around on the couch and watch TV for the last couple of years. He has been out doing marathons and riding a lot of long-distance charity rides, so he’s had to stay in pretty good shape to do those things on a regular basis. When he sets his mind to doing something he gets it done. He obviously believes he can win again. He doesn’t make these kind of decisions idly.”

Davide Rebellin

“From the moment he starts training, he’ll be on his way to competing. I know how him well and how he is. He’ll do all he needs to get the results. If he returns, he’ll surely be competitive.”

Sean Yates

“He has made it clear that he misses the camaraderie of the bike team. When you’re part of a team your part of a close-knit group.”

Alejandro Valverde

“As a cyclist, I don’t understand it. But everybody is their own person and can do what they want. It seems surprising to me, after having left cycling and even more so after having won seven Tours, but if he is fit and hasn’t lost his form then he will be welcomed back.”

Carlos Sastre

“I imagine that he’s studied everything and he will have looked at the pros and cons. If he’s done that, then it’s fine with me.”

David Millar

“It seems a bit ambitious. I am very surprised because I was fairly sure he had put cycling behind him and he was moving on with his life. Lance has proven in the past he can do almost anything. It sounds totally off the wall at first, but that’s the sort of person Lance is.”

Chris Boardman

“My guess is that he’s struggling with the cold turkey after being top of the world in cycling. Suddenly you’re out in the real world – what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Sportsmen who have retired can look back through rose-coloured spectacles and forget how hard it was, how small some of the differences were. It’s almost sad in some ways. You can’t spend your whole life being a beauty queen – it’ll start to fade. There are other things in life. At some point, you have to move on. Most people retire in their early to mid 30s, because they just don’t have the passion for it any more. You’ve just had enough. That’s the bit that gives out. But he’s never really stopped. Whether there’s any physiological aspect that would stop you at 37 that wouldn’t have stopped you at 32 I would doubt. Everything that we know about him would suggest that he doesn’t do anything unless he’s got a good idea of how it will turn out. But if he rides the same as he did before, he’s probably got an even bigger gap over the rest than he did before. I’m sure there are a lot of riders who are thinking, ‘Oh no, why can’t he just go away?’ He’ll go with Astana. There’s no point making work when you don’t have to. Everything’s set up for him. There’s no other option for him. With where he’s starting from now, regardless of who he is, it’s too late. Riders have signed contracts, manufacturers are in place, so are the mechanics and the people who’ll drive the cars. He’ll have to choose an existing team, and that’s the only one for him. I can’t believe he hasn’t announced it already. He’s being very selective [witht he races he said he’ll ride]. The only slightly dodgy one might be the Dauphine, because it’s like a mini Tour de France. You have to be very disciplined and not try to be there at 100%. Although it’s been done before, winning the Dauphine is usually a precursor to doing badly at the Tour. The start of the Dauphine to the end of the Tour is usually eight or nine weeks, and you just can’t stay at the top of your form for that long. Regardless of what you thought of him, or any of the shadows that surrounded him, he was more professional than anyone else. He thought faster than everyone else and he surrounded himself with the right people. He’s a very good managing director of his own firm. The difference was that there wasn’t a big take-up from other riders – no-one else seemed to follow suit. The sport when he left it wasn’t that different to when he arrived. Armstrong specialises in surprises. And he also likes to drag things out.”

Adri Van Houwelingen:

“It’s impossible to come back on the level he had before. I don’t know what his motivation is.”

Dick Pound

“If he comes back and says, ’I’m back, and I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary,’ I don’t think that necessarily clears up any outstanding issues from past.”

Jonathan Vaughters

"At the end of the day, I think Christian will be a better bike rider than Lance."

Christian Vande Velde

"It’ll have to wait to see if Lance’s level of fitness at age 37. It’s difficult to know how I can do."

Andy Lee

"As a cancer survivor and seven-time Tour winner Lance has brought a tremendous amount of attention to competitive cycling in America and his success is largely responsible for the significant growth USA Cycling has experienced over the course of the last 10 years. A comeback to the sport’s marquee event would bring with it unprecedented intrigue and excitement and would most likely have a similar impact. A return would be one of the most exciting things to happen in American cycling in a long time."

Dave Brailsford

"He’s got a lot to lose and what has he got to gain? He is an icon in the world of sport so it is a very interesting move and I have to admit I have my doubts. I think he should let the next Lance Armstrong come up and take the stage. My advice to him would be to settle back into retirement."

Jens Voigt

“I am pleased that he is coming back. It will definitely be very interesting. Armstrong will revive the business. Cycling will experience a lift through it, of that I am 100 percent certain. When I call it a day, I would do so because I could no longer keep up with the best in the world. With Armstrong is it different, it is like an addiction with him. He will already have done tests. There he would have seen that he can still step on the power. I have huge respect for his decision to give it another go. Like it said: I would not be in the position to do it.”

Brad Huff (Jelly Belly rider)

“Like every American out there, they see us riding the bike and everyone yells, ‘Go, Lance! Go, Lance!’ It would just help out if he came back so that they could actually cheer for Lance again.”

Steve Hegg

"Michael Jordan made a comeback, didn’t he? You know what? Now he’s coming back to his people. Look at this sport, eventually everyone somehow gets sucked back into it."

Mark Cavendish

“When I started cycling, that was the start of his domination of the Tour de France. Yeah, it was quite special. I don’t often get star-struck, but I think that might be one of the times.”

George Hincapie

“Without Lance, half these teams probably wouldn’t even be around. He’s done more than anything anybody’s ever done for cycling, especially here in America.”

Christophe Bassons

“It’s sad. It saddens and even scares me a bit. I don’t understand it. Lance Armstrong’s comeback to cycling saddens me. If he decides to come back to competition then he had better be sure he can win his eighth Tour de France. Furthermore, if he races with Astana, I think that’ll be just another way to mock the competition of cycling. This return will not make him any bigger.”

“I should be all right [in the Leadville Trail 100]. I’m as close to serious as I used to be.”

“[Cancer’s] unlike anything else in that it affects everybody — everybody has felt that loss. I represent an apolitical issue that affects Republicans and Democrats, the rich and the poor, whites and blacks. It doesn’t care.”

“No, no, I’m not running in 2010. It can’t be a skit, it can’t be a dare, it can’t be a PR thing. You’ve got to really devote your life to it, and I haven’t done that yet. I think about it. I know the dates.”

“With a life-threatening illness, you win and you live on. You lose and you die. After I gained that perspective, I hated the notion of losing.”

Interviewed in Men’s Vogue

“I am surprised at the news, but I think it is a good thing. If he starts the race, I think it will be exciting for the Tour. When he attacks, the others will have to hold on. He will not be returning to win second place. At the moment, I am just enjoying time with my young son Max. In all honesty I have no urge to return. I have other plans in life and I am not missing anything. I am happy with my life. You should never say never, but it is not something I have thought about. We have different stories, he retired after a victory, I retired after a disappointment. I wish him luck and I will call him over the next few days.”

"Lance is coming back? Great! I like him as a rider, and of course as an individual. I think he brings a lot to the sport of cycling. For now though, there seems to be a lot of unknowns: What team will he ride for? What races will he do? Or more importantly, what races can he do? Having time out of racing normally makes it very difficult to come back, at Lance’s age especially. But if anyone can come out of retirement and win the Tour de France, Lance would be the man. I will be watching with interest. It could be someone else I have to watch leading into the Tour. At least I will not have as much media attention – that is a good thing from my point of view."

“It was definitely a surprise for me. Why he wants to return after four years, he will have to explain that. I don’t think it will be bad for the sport. As for his return, I don’t really know… He is quite a personality and a bit of a notoriety. I don’t think he can. It will be very difficult after being away four years from the activity of a professional cyclist. It’s clear that he can do great things, but to win the Tour? Of course, he is the man of the records. Maybe that will be another one – the eighth Tour at age 37!”