Lance Armstrong and His Fight to the Finish in the 2009 Tour De France

Lance Armstrong is facing an uphill battle. Not only does he have the daunting task of being in 2009's Tour de France at his age, but the greatest Tour winner ever will likely face the most grueling drug tests of any biker.

According to the Associated Press, the seven-time Tour winner will be "particularly, particularly, particularly" monitored by France's sports ministry and the International Cycling Union during the Tour de France.

Okay, how is that fair? The Tour's greatest champion ever comes out of cycling retirement at the ripe old age of 37 and he gets slapped with his toughest drug and doping scrutiny ever.

His age is the equivalent of age 60 in the youth-oriented, high-energy-required cycling universe because of all the effort, stamina and endurance required to win the race.

He has enough on his mind worrying about people stealing his equipment and personal belongings. Recently he had his specialized race bicycle stolen at the Amgen Tour in California in February, 2009, according to CNN. It was eventually returned with assistance by local police.

Twitter and Lance

Lance Armstrong is relatively old for a Tour de France cyclist, but ironically he is at the cutting edge in technology and social networking. He has a wildly popular Twitter page at twitter.com/lancearmstrong which has more than 1.25 million Twitter followers.

Lance Armstrong is known to send regular updates from his Twitter page so you can either follow him on Twitter or just save his Twitter page as a web site favorite and visit it throughout the Tour de France to get his personal, live point of view of the competition.

Does Lance have any realistic shot at doing well in the 2009 Tour de France? Though he is likely to be the most well-known competitor in the race, The New York Times has suggested that other riders like defending Tour champion Carlos Sastre of Spain or Russian cyclist Denis Menchov have more realistic chances of winning.

Popularity Contest

Lance Armstrong is the most well-known cyclist on the planet. He is by any measure the greatest Tour de France winner ever because he won the Tour seven times and no other rider has won more than five times, according to Wikipedia.

Lance will try to win another Tour de France but if winning does not seem possible then he will do what he can to help one of his teammates win. He is a great ambassador for the sport of cycling and he should be treated the same as all other cyclists in the race. Just because he is the most famous competitor in Tour does not mean that he should be given extra attention by the drug testers.

We will be cheering for Lance Armstrong in the 2009 Tour de France and reading the daily updates on his Twitter page. Go, Lance, go.

Sources

"Armstrong under doping watch at Tour.," Associated Press, July 3, 2009.

"Armstrong's bike stolen after race.," Associated Press, Feb. 16, 2009.

"Armstrong faces an array of formidable riders in Tour de France," Juliet Macur, The New York Times, July 2, 2009.

Lance Armstrong Twitter page., official website.

Tour de France winners, Wikipedia