make that 3 races:

TdG n’exister pas, apparently,

and somehow I think that HW . . . .’s presence as a rumor would be enough to get Astana another July racing somewhere else besides France.

Is it April?

Can’t someone set him up with the other Olsen twin?

…endorsement deal.

And Floyd to help?

i so heart the “sources close to the situation” ha!

yo velonews, trolling is so kindergarten…

That he is coming back. Surely he would be nothing more than a bottle fetcher and candidate for a break that stays away. there is no way he could actually resemble anything close to a top 50 finish? right? right? Please somebody tell me I’m right????

And if that’s the case, why would he come back? Especially as an American, where winning is the only thing that makes the Sunday paper. No scribe from the NYT is going to extoll Armstrong’s unselfishness as a teammate? The headline will be Lance Armstrong finishes 114th in the TdF, which people will equate to failure.

There are too many reasons why it would not be a good idea – I looked at the Calendar to make sure it was not April 1st. I’m not sure why Velonews would post this story, but I am an extreme doubter on this one.

He’s not going to prove that he rode clean by coming back. I think it would take a lot to get back into the form he had in the past years and I doubt he is willing to make that sacrifice. Even if he did ride well, that would not prove that he did not dope before.

There has to be some other motivation for Velonews to run this story. I do hope it helps the Tour de Georgia.

china? Antarctica? Texas?

I think, actually, that this is GOOD news. Many people have said “why the hell don’t any of these American racers actually do something to promote US Cycling”… well, can you imagine anything bigger at the ToC or the ToG or the To’AnyPlaceUSA than Lance Armstrong toeing the line at each stage? I think that would be HUGE for US Cycling… it would certainly boost the crowds.

I am, admittedly, the “ghey-for-armstrong-trekkie-discofanboy” guy. But take allllll that out of it… he WILL draw crowds, and that is good. And if he does it under the auspices of the Astana Rasmus Daamsgaard equivalent, then color me very, very happy.

yeah – hehoo is a douchebag off the bike, but was responsible for the explosion in coverage and interest in the US and arguably europe – think alpe TT – than anyone, ever.

I don’t like the change he brought in the specialization aspect (a real champ should be able to win spring classics, a GT and a fall classic) but those days were going away anyway and if it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else. I believe he was juiced but given the playing field still respect his natural ability.

Bring him back, the circus would not hurt the sport, after all, high end road bike sales are WAY down and coverage on VS lacks compared to a few years ago.

I’m still a fan. And aside from saving TdG (yay!), it would be great to have Lance back.

But I don’t believe it.

must be shouting for joy at this one.

I’m a little dumbfounded. I guess it’ll be interesting to see what he does. And although I’m not naive about Lance’s accomplishments, I’m also not a hater. I know he’s a divisive figure around the sport: hard-ass on and off the bike; symbol of an era we all want to forget; etc. So keep that in mind as we bat this around in our usual friendly manner.

What he’d do… honestly, I don’t see him being competitive for more than a one-week race.

Floyd is back next year, right? Does this mean we get to see Lance attempting to shut Floyd down at the American races again? Because no one got enough of that in 2005 . . .

Well, the story has got legs in the mainstream media. It’s being picked up.

that Lance is considering racing in five races next year. I can only think of two or three athletes that I enjoy watching ride a bike as much as I enjoyed watching Lance ride all those years. He has such enthusiasm for it. I think it will be good for the sport, and I’ll bet Lance uses this as a way to help promote some of the younger people in the sport.

is that now the VS commentators will actually be able to refer to a cyclist that is in the race.

he should skip the Tour de France (been there) and enter the Giro or Vuelta

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/sep08/sep09news

JB is surprised by the rumours and knows nothing about them… (I’m still reading)

“I don’t think so,” said Leipheimer of the chances of Armstrong returning to mix it up with the pros.

better job with the linkie here

He Is HWMNBN

and spend a year or two in baseball first? Maybe he could try synchronized diving, too, before coming back to cycling. If he needs more suggestions for other sports to try, I’ve got a long list….

On the big AM yapper in Chicago, the sports update led off with HWMNBN and his impending return. Mind you, the Bears upset the Colts last night, and the Cubs and Sox are both in first place, so it’s not like there is a dearth of sports news out there

This is big news even outside our friendly community of uber fans.

here
and once again, I love Dutch/Flemish, or at least in this case their sentence structure…
(google translated)

Lance Armstrong is almost 37 years, but he would still back on the next bike creep.

read that quickly and you would think they just called LA a “bike creep”…

The man can do what he wants. I’ve got no criticisms for his choice, but I didn’t read the announcement as good news. That is to say, I’m not looking forward to the media circus. I’m not looking forward to everything being about him again. I’m not looking forward to his bursitus (or whatever) taking press inches away from the classics.

I’m also not excited to see Astana trying the Unibet plan to force the ASO to invite them. My best case scenario is that he comes back, Astana fails to gain a Tour invite and he gets bored w/ mediocre finishes in other races. Knowing Lance, however, he andthe good doctor>, his suitcase of courage amazing will and spirit of overcoming will show us all naysayers up.

HWNMNBM is coming back to road racing in 2009.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/55318-lance-armstrong-to-come-out-of-retirement-to-sign-with-jets

????

this one thouched a nerve here……….

racing in the 09 tour. Apparently they think the Tour is a waste of time at this point.

how can this be happening and not include an Ekimov comeback as a package deal? Can we start circulating a petition?

Lance for the Tour

and Contador for the Giro and Vuelta?

If he’s not racing in April, i care very little about it.

if he came back as a super domestique for Contador at the Tour. Don’t know if he would do it, but I would love to see them ride together in the mountains.

Lance Armstrong’s reported comeback won’t take place with the Astana cycling team. “He is no part of our team,” Astana team press officer Philippe Maertens told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “Team Astana has no plans with him.”

AP article, and Hincapie had no comment (why it turned up in my news google search for more than the top 3 at Missouri today…)

I think the forum here represents the intellectual truth of this sport we love and Lance embodies something we don’t want to think about, but seem to anyway. I agree with PopUp’s comment earlier about turning the page (without Lance). But then there’s the “exposing the sport to the masses” aspect of this. I think maybe I’ll just hope his comeback rejuvenates the non-cycling public’s interest…but secretly hope he looks like a total snapper-head in the process…with a wide-brimmed asshat perched on top.

smirk..

i’m done.

Okay, I just mentioned that because I think Rachel Maddow rocks.

I actually heard the rumor on ESPN radio today.

One thing that interests me is VeloNews’s claim that the story is to come out in Vanity Fair later this month. Two things to remember: Vanity Fair, as annoyingly full of itself as it can be, a. is very good at getting scoops (remember Mark Felt?), b. is very seldom wrong. VN says the VF people are giving the old “no comment,” and this has to lead one to suspect that there’s some truth to the story.

if he comes back, we won’t hear about his imminent political career for a while.

Bonnie Ford has a good piece at espn.

The US $ will be so weak by next summer that Americans will have to watch the TdF on TV instead of dressing up like Uncle Sam and running alongside the Peleton

desollée

Huh?

I had an interesting email exchange with Astana press officer Philippe Maertens today. He make his team’s position pretty clear. We posted the story on CycleTo, here.

Beth Kseniak, a spokeswoman for Vanity Fair, confirmed Monday that the magazine was working on an Armstrong story but did not provide details.

From the New York Times

I don’t believe the story but it is certainly not out of the question, and I think it would be a boon for cycling especially in the USof A where people can only yell out their car window one name at you while out riding your bike “Go Lance”. A limited engagement return from Lance would save the Tour of Georgia for another year or two, would signnificantly boost the ToCali to hopefully one day becoming another 3 week stage race, and we know how much Lance made for France at their tour, astronomical $$$. The idea seems rediculous to most, but it feeds his ego and some of his extracurricular activities and feeds the purses of many investors in the cycling world.

To comment about the post about the US $ being so weak next year no one can afford to go to the TdF, I agree with the continued decline of the $ thing, but so many Americans are so rich they are unaffected by the economy.

brings this to the attention of people not on PC. Which means we may expect some new readers. Some will be offended by comments on Lance, or by our language. Some will post to tell us so. Most will not go back and read all the other posts on this site, and realize that we spend hours on all aspects of bike racing, teams, riders, wheels, frames, race organizers, etc. etc. etc. With luck, some of them will recognize that this is a place where those who are very into Lance and those who are very over Lance (not to mention those who don’t much care about Lance, compared to the new crop of great young riders) can peaceably coexist and share massive cycling enthusiasm.