Lance Armstrong coming back to later, higher Tour of California

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California host cities were announced Thursday as well as the fact that Lance Armstrong and three-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer will be in the field again.

Read here and here and here about the race that has been moved from February to May 16-23 for its fifth year.

The later date allows the Tour of California to offer routes through the mountains and include a mountaintop finish in Big Bear. This year's time trial will be in Los Angeles and finish at the LA Live complex instead of Solvang where it had been successfully held. But LA Live is a product of AEG and so is the Tour of California. So forget about those lovely Solvang pastries and little fruit-filled pancakes. The finish in Big Bear will be on a stage that will start in Pasadena.

The TofC will also go against cycling's traditional May race, the Giro d'Italia. Armstrong rode the Giro last year for the first time. But next year with his new American-based RadioShack team in its premiere season, it was expected that Armstrong and RadioShack teammate Leipheimer would support the biggest U.S. race. 

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Lance Armstrong. Credit: Peter Morrison / Associated Press

Kristin Armstrong -- no relation, but cycling world champion herself

Kristin Armstrong will never have the same fame, or income, or impact on the sports world as has had another Armstrong cyclist -- Lance.

But Kristin has finished off her career in style. She won a gold medal at the world championships in the time trial Wednesday. She had won an Olympic gold medal last summer in Beijing.

Kristin has spent most of her cycling career being mixed up with Lance's former

wife, another Kristin Armstrong. The cycling Kristin has always handled the confusion with grace. She met Lance once, and that was fine, but Kristin said her riding has never been about gaining fame or fortune. (Well, a little fortune would have been nice, she said last summer). "I just love riding the bike," she had said before the Olympics.

On the men's side, Fabian Cancellara won the men's time trial for the third year in a row at the world championships in his home country of Switzerland. He was the winner of the opening prologue at the 2009 Amgen Tour of California.

The surprise fourth-place finisher was little-known American Tom Zirbel, who, at 6-feet-5, is an extremely tall cyclist. 

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Kristin Armstrong. Credit: Jean-Christophe Bott.

Lance Armstrong returning to Tour Down Under

Not that Lance Armstrong hasn't been talking about having a Year 2 of his cycling comeback, but it became official Wednesday when the Tour Down Under announced that Armstrong, and his new Radio Shack team, will be in the 2010 race that begins Jan. 17 in South Australia.

Armstrong chose the 2009 Tour Down Under to return to cycling road racing after his 3 1/2-year retirement from the sport. South Australia Premier Michael Rann has been a vocal supporter of Armstrong's global cancer research fundraising efforts.

The Tour Down Under is centered around the South Australia capital city of Adelaide and last year Armstrong's appearance drew record crowds. The headline of Wednesday's press release announcing Armstrong's return said: "We got Lance."

Why are races so happy to have Armstrong? He rode in the Tour of Ireland this week. On Tuesday Armstrong sent out a Twitter message telling anyone who might be interested could join him for a ride in Dublin. According to a VeloNews story, more than 1,000 riders showed up.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner, meets the general public before a ride in Dublin, Ireland on August 25.. Photo credit: Peter Muhly / Getty Images.

Alberto Contador on Lance Armstrong and Tour de France in El Pais

From the moment Lance Armstrong announced he was returning to cycling and rejoining forces with Johan Bruyneel and thus riding for Astana this year, Alberto Contador was in an uncomfortable position. The Spaniard had to compete on his own team for the No. 1 spot a year after winning two of the three grand tours and missing out on defending his 2007 Tour de France win only because Astana was banned from the race in 2008.

So the very public uncomfortableness between the pair for three weeks was undeniable though Armstrong did not shirk his cycling duties and when it was clear Contador would win the race, Armstrong rode hard and well enough to finish third.

There weren't warm handshakes or hugs between the teammates on the podium last Sunday and Contador surely was dealt a tough team hand to play -- how do you interpose yourself between a legend and the man who helped make him one? -- but the public Armstrong bashing Contador has engaged in since leaving France seems pointless and is likely focusing Armstrong very clearly for another run at Contador next year when Armstrong leads the new Team Radio Shack and Contador rides for whoever wins his services.

On several cycling sites you can find this translation of an article in the Spanish daily El Pais and Contador complains that Armstrong dominated meals, stole the use of team cars and even intercepted a water bottle meant for Contador once. Honestly, it makes Contador seem like a sore winner and something of a whiner. After all, Contador has forever the yellow jersey from 2009. Armstrong and Astana couldn't have treated him that badly then. You don't win the Tour without assistance from a team.

Meanwhile Armstrong has been updating his Twitter from a beach in Abacos. He seems to be having more fun this week after the three-week race than the winner.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Alberto Contador rides on the Champs-Elysees with the Spanish flag draped around his shoulders following his overall victory in the Tour de France on July 26. Credit: Christophe Ena / Associated Press

Cycling's best, George Hincapie version

Since I started writing about cycling about six years ago, George Hincapie has always been one of the classiest, most thoughtful, generally all-around good guys among athletes I  have ever met. He returns phone calls, did interviews during  those seven years when he was riding in support of Lance Armstrong where all anyone wanted was to ask about Armstrong, and even this year willingly called me once from France at nearly midnight to help me with a story about Armstrong.

So I'll admit to rooting big time for George on the day he almost but not quite won a stage at the recently concluded Tour, and I am not at all surprised that Hincapie waited until the Tour was finished to check out a collarbone injury he suffered in the 17th stage.

Guess what? He rode most of the final five stages with a broken collarbone. The work he did on Sunday to get his Columbia-HTC teammate Mark Cavendish a sixth stage victory? Every turn Hincapie took over those cobblestones in Paris must have been agony. And yet, not a peep of complaint.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: American George Hincapie, left, reacts as he hugs his teammate Mark Cavendish of Britain, right, who won the 19th stage of the Tour de France on July 24th. Photo credit: Bas Czerwinski / Associated Press.

Back in Spain, Contador knocks Lance Armstrong

Interesting to read now that he's back in Spain, Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has gone public with what he thinks of former seven-time winner and ostensible Astana teammate Lance Armstrong, who finished third in this year's race.

Meanwhile, while Tour de France officials are cautiously optimistic that this Tour ended with no doping scandals and none on the horizon, French anti-doping president Pierre Bordry isn't as certain. He thinks there are new ways to beat the tests, some 14 of which Armstrong alone was subjected to during the three-week Tour.

And Armstrong said on Twitter this morning that he was leaving France and headed for a beach. Probably not for long though. Watching Armstrong chat up practically every cyclist in the peloton on Sunday's final ride into Paris (well, every one but Contador), it seemed as if Armstrong was taking names, numbers and e-mail addresses to use in recruiting riders for the new Radio Shack team. Also Armstrong's competitive season isn't over yet. He plans to race Aug. 21-23 in the Tour of Ireland.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Alberto Contador greets a group of fans as he arrives in Spain on July 27, 2009. Photo credit: Juanjo Martin / European Press Agency.

On a Tour de France rest day, Lance Armstrong is silent but his rivals aren't

No cycling today in France -- it's the 21-stage tour's first of two rest days. But that doesn't mean all the cyclists lay in their Limoges hotel rooms and vegged out. Besides taking leisurely rides to keep their legs in peak form, many riders held news conferences.

For example, young Astana star Alberto Contador held one at a Novotel hotel outside of Limoges where more than 200 journalists showed up and the meeting was convened under a tree next to a swimming pool. Contador said he would not follow Lance Armstrong should the 37-year-old, seven-time Tour winner make an attack in the Alps next week. We think that was Contador's own voice and not team director Johan Bruyneel playing the ventriloquist.

At another news conference, defending champion Carlos Sastre said he was hardly conceding his title to Contador or Armstrong.

And Andy Schleck, another yellow jersey favorite, was optimistic about his own chances but also suggested he would not be surprised if Armstrong won.

Even Garmin rider Bradley Wiggins couldn't help talking about Armstrong.

Armstrong himself, however, stayed silent Monday. He must have actually been resting.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Lance Armstrong takes part in a training session on Monday. Credit: Jasper Juinen / Getty Images

Ben Stiller gives the yellow jersey to ... not Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong's Astana won the Tour de France team time trial today in Montpellier but only by fractions of a second, Armstrong is second overall to Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara.

One can think perhaps that Armstrong thought he might have been putting on the yellow jersey Tuesday because his friend, actor Ben Stiller, made the yellow jersey podium presentation to Cancellara. Earlier this year Stiller had hosted a cancer charity event for Armstrong in Los Angeles, and on Monday Armstrong and Stiller had coffee before the start of the third stage.

Already this Tour has been full of energy and intrigue, more than normal in the first week where you'd usually have a series of flat stages offering excitement only to sprinters and where the overall favorites would mostly try to stay safe and avoid the mass pile-up crashes that occur early in the Tour when everybody is fresh and aggressive.

But there was the big break in the peloton that happened Monday when tricky winds played havoc. Armstrong understood what was happening and stayed with Columbia-HTC when it got fed up that none of the other teams with strong sprinters (Columbia has the best in 24-year-old Mark Cavendish) worked to reel in the breakaway group and took off on its own at a point where the route turned and the winds became a super-breezy crosswind. Armstrong and Cancellara stuck with Columbia but Armstrong's teammate and pre-race favorite Alberto Contador missed the split and lost time to Armstrong as did several other favorites such as Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov and Andy Schleck. It was a truly amazing turn of events.

So there was anticipation that with his Astana team favored to win the team time trial that Armstrong might actually put on yellow today.

Not quite.

Armstrong was 40 seconds behind Cancellara going into the stage, and Astana finished 40 seconds ahead of Cancellara's Saxo Bank team. It even took Tour officials about 10 minutes to announce that, after parsing all the numbers, it was Cancellara who kept yellow. Armstrong is second, officially 0.00 behind Cancellara. So, yeah, that's not far behind.

This race is getting so good. And so soon.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Fabian Cancellara remains in the yellow jersey during stage four of the Tour de France. Credit: Gepa / US Presswire

Some words from Lance Armstrong's coach

Lance Armstrong's longtime coach and team director, Johan Bruyneel, has some interesting assessments about the future of his financially plagued Astana team as well as Armstrong's form after the Giro d'Italia and heading into the Tour de France. Bruyneel is usually pretty honest. He's also pretty happy with how Armstrong's comeback is progressing.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Lance Armstrong toasts with Johan Bruyneel in 2004. Credit: Peter Dejong/Associated Press.

Next Lance Armstrong -- step up, Taylor Phinney

While Lance Armstrong has returned home after his 12th-place finish in the Giro d'Italia to await the birth of his fourth child and continue preparing for the start of the Tour de France on July 4, one of his proteges on his under-23 team had a groundbreaking performance Sunday.

Taylor Phinney, son of former Olympians Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney, became the first American to win the Under 23 Paris-Roubaix race Sunday. Phinney said it was a lifelong dream to win the race, and his win was big news in the cycling world.

Taylor rides for Armstrong's Trek-Livestrong Under 23 team.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Taylor Phinney at a USOC event in 2008. Credit: Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press.