Fw: Lance at the 2009 Giro d'Italia

Some weeks ago I heard Lance Armstrong was going to be coming out of retirement, it was said to win another Tour de France. In my inbox the other day, though, was an offer from Trek Travel to take me to the Giro d'Italia to see him compete in that.

"One of the greatest regrets in my cycling career was never doing the Giro d'Italia.” -Lance Armstrong

Seven-time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong, will wipe away all regrets and race the Giro d’Italia for the very first time. And this is your one and only chance to witness it live with Team Astana’s Official Tour Operator and the only company endorsed by Lance himself—Trek Travel.

However, a VeloNews article mentions five races he's supposedly planning (Amgen TofCali, Paris-Nice, TdGeorgia, Dauphine Libere, and of course the TdF), none of which offer the Giro's pink jersey. What's up? Further, the VN piece quotes an Astana press officer as saying, "He is no part of our team."

So whatever. It looks from a Google search that he's coming back, most likely with Astana, although I don't have time to verify the Giro thread. If this is true, it will be interesting because my only gripe with the guy was that he never really did much except win the Tour. If he can compete in or even win the Giro (which features a harder climb than can be found in the TdF, and that is really saying something), without the 'Blue Train' of his now dismatled and scattered US Postal/Discovery Channel teams, it will be a nice feather in his cap. I seem to remember that first mention of his return mentioning that he was doing it to raising cancer awareness. Not sure that's the case, but whatever his motivation, I'll bet he's cool as a cucumber and not giving too much thought to establishing himself a little higher in cycling's vaunted hierarchy.