Lance Armstrong didn’t win the Tour de France this year, but by any standard his return to the event after a three-year absence was a success.
He made it to the victory podium, capturing third place in the grueling 2,150-mile, 21-stage cycling event that ended Sunday.
He did this despite the fact that he’s 37 years old and hadn’t competed in the Tour since he retired after winning in 2005 for the seventh consecutive time.
Lance Armstrong
Armstrong, a cancer survivor, did well even though he broke his collarbone in March, a significant setback to his training.
Given the Armstrong story line, it’s no surprise that television ratings for the Tour in the U.S. on Versus, the cable channel, were up 95 percent in the mornings from the previous year.
It’s also no surprise that Armstrong announced that his comeback would continue. He’ll return to the Tour next year, the leader of a new team.
When he does, he’ll probably have the support of the surprising new members of his fan club, the French.
When he dominated the Tour from 1999 to 2005, Armstrong was not a popular victor with the residents of the tour’s home country.
They accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs - it has never been proven that he did - and generally went out of their way to cheer for anyone but the cyclist from Texas.
The New York Times reports that this time around, the French saw Armstrong as an underdog. They liked this new narrative and cheered Armstrong all along the route. Armstrong loved them back. “Thanks/Merci!!” he messaged on Twitter as he left France.
This was just one of many tweets from Armstrong, messages that made him seem more open, more accessible to the public. (Though perhaps less accessible to the press, which has complained he was bypassing them.)
Armstrong gave a cyber shout out to the Bike Snob, an anonymous blogger who offers acerbic looks at cycling’s fashions and foibles. “The Snob = a daily must read,” Armstrong wrote.
In other messages, Armstrong praised 59-year-old Tom Watson’s showing at golf’s British Open. He consistently commiserated with cyclists who had to leave the Tour because of injury.
And he made frequent references to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the organization he formed to help fight cancer.
Armstrong rode for Astana, a cycling team sponsored by a group of companies in Kazakhstan.
Alberto Contador, the 26-year-old Spaniard who won this year’s Tour, was also on the Astana team.
Contador, who also won in 2007, and Armstrong proved to be an odd couple, clearly unhappy with each other as the Tour progressed.
For his part, Armstrong appeared baffled by some of Contador’s tactics during the Tour, and, by the end, he seemed happier for the second-place finisher, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, than he was for Contador.
Contador, in turn, made it clear that he and Armstrong had issues.
“My relationship with Lance Armstrong is zero,” he said Monday upon his return to Spain.
Armstrong fired back, on Twitter, of course: “Seeing these comments from AC. If I were him I’d drop this drivel and start thanking his team. w/o them, he doesn’t win.”
Near the end of the Tour, Armstrong announced that next year he would race for RadioShack, the U.S.-based electronics retailer.
Contador has not announced an arrangement for next year, but he won’t race for RadioShack. He and Armstrong will be rivals on opposite teams.
Reportedly, Johan Bruyneel, who managed Astana and Armstrong’s Tour winning teams, will move to RadioShack.
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1 Comments
#1. Judy S 07.29.2009
Every thing about Lance intrigues me.
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