News

National

Sport

'Lance is coming to win': Adelaide-bound Armstrong just wants victory

RUPERT GUINNESS

25 Sep, 2008 01:00 AM

AFTER Lance Armstrong confirmed that Australia's Tour Down Under would be where he will launch his comeback to road racing, it was revealed the seven-time Tour de France champion intends to resume where he left off when he retired in 2005 - by winning.

Luring Armstrong to the Adelaide event in January is one of the biggest coups by a sporting event in Australia. However, after the South Australian Government made the announcement yesterday, race director Mike Turtur said Armstrong's manager, Bill Stapleton, had warned Armstrong would be aiming to win the race when he and his team - understood to be Astana - arrived.

"He said Lance is coming to win," Turtur said. "He is very cautious in what he is committing to off the bike because he is here to concentrate on riding the bike and winning the race, which I was really impressed with."

Turtur said Armstrong is so determined to re-adapt to the rigours of being a professional cyclist that he will not be expecting any special treatment.

Armstrong feels he must return to the grit and grind of training and racing if he is to win a record eighth Tour at 37 years of age.

"We discussed about any special arrangements we need to make," Turtur said.

"He said: 'No … I am a bike rider. I am part of a team … that's how I want to be treated.'

"Obviously, there is security. There will be an increase in activity that we will have to deal with … to make sure things are best managed.

"But he just wants to be one of the boys. He will share a room like every rider does on the race and he will eat at the same table his team does and so on. All those things were made quite clear. There was no special arrangements that have to be made for him."

Crucial to getting Armstrong to commit to the race was the SA State Government's position on cancer treatment. Armstrong told the Herald in an email last week that that would play a pivotal role in whether he would come to Australia or not.

While Armstrong will visit Australia as part of a Pro Tour registered team sanctioned by the Union Cycliste International and not as an individual, he has been offered a package that includes a number of initiatives aimed at supporting his global cancer campaign. His management was impressed by the Government's position on cancer research, especially the construction of the Marjorie Jackson Nelson Hospital and the link with the Olympic athlete's husband Peter Nelson, a former Olympic cyclist who she met at the 1952 Games and died from leukaemia in 1977.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann said he spoke to Armstrong's management regarding the state's cancer research and treatment credentials and promised to support Armstrong in his mission. "We are happy to join with him in supporting those causes," he said.

Armstrong was due to outline his cancer campaign last night at a press conference at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

Armstrong is due to hold a second media call tonight in Las Vegas at the Interbike show to detail more plans of his comeback.

One element to be revealed, according to The New York Times , is that Armstrong's personal anti-doping program will be headed up by Don Catlin, the former head of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory who is now, among other positions, the chief science officer of Anti-Doping Sciences Institute. It also said Armstrong will set up an under-23 team directed by Axel Merckx, the son of Belgium's five-time Tour winner Eddy Merckx.

It was believed Armstrong would ride for the Astana team because of his close ties with manager Johan Bruyneel, who directed him to his seven Tour wins. But then last night, Kazakhstan business officials announced that Armstrong would be riding for them next year.

Astana leader Alberto Contador, meanwhile, fuelled speculation he might leave should Armstrong come on board. Last year's Tour champion and this year's Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana winner told Spanish newspaper AS : "I've earned the right to be the leader of a team without having to fight for my place. With Armstrong some difficult situations could arise in which the team would put him first and that would hurt me."