Lance Armstrong plans to come out of retirement and try to win an eight Tour de France, according to reports. French cycling magazine VeloNews claims the American will race in five events in 2009 culminating in Le Tour.
The US anti-doping agency has confirmed Armstrong has reinstated himself in its out-of-competition testing pool.
The Texan, who turns 37 on September 18, beat testicular cancer before winning seven straight Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005.
Since his retirement in 2005, Armstrong has run twice in the New York City Marathon and also the Boston Marathon.
In August he finished second in the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile (160km) mountain bike race in Colorado.
Armstrong's return to road racing is to be the centerpiece of a story in the upcoming issue US magazine Vanity Fair, according to VeloNews.
It claims he will compete in the Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France for no salary or bonuses.
However, VeloNews did not identify the team for which Armstrong will race.
Astana team director Johan Bruyneel, who was with Armstrong for all seven of his Tour wins, said he was unaware of any comeback by the rider.
"I don't know where the rumours come from," he told told cyclingnews.com.
USA Cycling said Armstrong has not applied for a new international cycling licence.
But chief operating officer Sean Petty said Armstrong typically did not request such a licence until January or February.
1 comment:
Looks like Nike is going to jump back on the cycling band wagon, which they left in 2007. Sigh. Capitalism.
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