Watch Lance live Wednesday at 11 a.m.
Lance Armstrong will offer Part 1 of his explanation of his return to cycling in a live webcast and press conference from the Clinton Global Initiative at 11 a.m. St. Louis time Wednesday.
Here’s the link. It will be activated about 15 minutes before the conference.
I can’t imagine he’ll address Alberto Contador’s concerns about a seven-time Tour de France winner racing side-by-side with the winner of three of the last four grand tours. Lance probably will take the high road about spreading the gospel of cancer survivorship on his two very fast wheels. He’s an honored guest at the former President’s get-together on world poverty alleviation, health, energy and education.
He’s scheduled to yap even more about his return _ and probably will get down to brass tacks _ on Thursday at the Interbike show in Las Vegas, a much better venue for talking about racing. There, he’ll be an honored guest of Trek and have to fight for time with Phil Liggett’s version of the heads of state, as opposed to the United Nations’ roster.
If I’m Alberto or Levi, this a.m. I’ve got Johan on one speed dial setting and Bjarne Riis on the other …
Think about what those two have accomplished this season: Contador has two grand tour victories. Leipheimer has an Olympic medal, a podium finish in the Vuelta, a victory in California and by the end of the week, he could be a world time trial champ.
And these two deserve to be Lance’s support riders? They deserve better. I think Levi would be a good fit with Bob Stapleton and Columbia for a year. Contador can go anywhere.
I wonder whether Johan wants to mortgage the next decade of victories with Contador to completely upend the program for Lance.
The more I think about it, the more I think a new team needs to be built around Lance.
I think you’re right. They both have earned their spots as team leaders. Everyone in cycling knows the Lance Doctrine (my way or the highway) and I’m glad Contador came out in the media as saying he would have problems riding support for Lance after the resume he’s put up in the past 14 months.
Whatever the case, I bet Big George is laughing his bibs off. Next year’s Tour may be the biggest one yet. We could have infighting within a top tour team, Two American squads with the personnel and horsepower to make Lance look very bad in the high mountains and the TTs he used to dominate, a triumvirate of Italians, Spaniards and Frenchmen looking to work together to put a hurting on Lance, anti-doping crossfire, Johan sniping and maybe the deepest Tour field in years. All that’s missing is an impossible invite to Rock Racing (which won’t happen, but would add to the panache). If I’m the CEO of Versus, I’ve got ASO on the horn assuring me that Astana’s got an invite next year.
There’s going to be fireworks at next year’s tour.