Lance is committed!

As I posted a few months back, Lance Armstrong is going to return to pro cycling. As expected, he signed with Team Astana and his former Director Johan Bruyneel. Also, at that time he announced he planned on riding in the 2009 Tour de France. Back when he was with US Postal and Discovery he would only ride in a few warm up races in the spring in preparation for the Tour. Well this year is has committed to ride in both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. This will be the first time he will compete in these two races in the same year. The Giro runs May 9-31, and the Tour begins July 4.With such a quick turnaround between two grueling races, the seven-time Tour champion acknowledged his body might not perform at the same level it did when he won his last Tour in 2005.

"If you've been away for three or four years, it would be silly for anybody to think I could pick up where I left off," Armstrong told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Tenerife in the Canary Islands where Astana is training. "I can tell you I feel better than ever, I feel stronger than ever on Dec. 1. How that translates to racing, we'll have to see. Mentally, in terms of motivation, this feels like 1998-1999 to me."

Armstrong's decision to ride gives the powerhouse Astana team a superstar lineup in France, including 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador. He missed last year's race because Astana was barred from riding for previous doping violations. Also riding with Astana is Germany's Andreas Kloeden, American veteran Levi Leipheimer and top support riders Yaroslav Popovych and Chris Horner. Astana is considered by far the strongest multistage team and will probably be the favorite going into the race.

Usually, the top cycling teams will come to the US to compete in a couple of warm up events. The big races in the US are the Tour de California, the Tour de Georgia and the Tour de Missouri. But this year, the Tour de Georgia has been cancelled for 2009. According to the Board of Directors, they are going to skip the race in 2009 to plan ahead and properly position the race and make it more of a world-class event and will be back in 2010. I am not sure what they can do to improve its status in the eyes of international cycling. It was one of the top two races held on US soil and always attracted the best European and US teams. This is going to make it tough for Lance fans in the southeast to see Lance ride live. He will probably only compete in the Tour de California this year, but that is not confirmed yet. The team roster for that race has not been set yet. It will be interesting to see how he performs after taking several years off from competitive cycling and to chase all of the Hollywood starlets. He says his main goal is to raise awareness for his foundation and cancer awareness, but I am sure he also wants to come back and win one more Tour de France. But with him scheduled to ride in the Giro, this could force him to be a domestic for someone else on Team Astana. That would be strange to see Lance supporting another rider and not being the one going for yellow!