Lance Armstrong Will Be Making a Comeback in Cycling

Last week Lance Armstrong, the seven time winner of the prestigious tour de France announced that he would be making a comeback into the sports in which he retired following the 2005 season.Armstrong's announcement drew immediately criticism from some big names in pro cycling including three time tour de France winner Greg Lemond.Greg Lemond has been a strong opponent of Lance Armstrong, siding with those that believe that Armstrong cheated on his way to seven tour the France wins. Armstrong would be joining his long time sports director Johan Bruyneel and team Kazakhe Astana which includes 2007 tour de France winner Alberto Contador. Contador is the current team leader and he is not too comfortable with having Lance Armstrong in the team.There can be only one team leader and Contador knows very well the competitiveness of Lance Armstrong.Both men would want to win the Tour de France in 2009 and Contador has talked about the possibility of switching teams. It would not be a problem for him to get another sponsor.

What is surprising to me in this comeback story is why Lance Armstrong would want to comeback into big time cycling in the first place. He made a lot of money in his cycling career,I suppose. I am hoping that liquidity is not the problem here. If it is,then his comeback would make sense. Cycling is what he knows how to do best. Ceiling is where he made his name and cycling is where he is going to make the most money looking forward. If money is not the issue then why? He has already made a name for himself in the sports. He won the Tour de France seven straight times,from 1999 through 2005 and the tour de France is where you seal your legacy as a great cyclists. Winning the tour de France twice makes you a great cyclists.Winning it five times puts you in the category of legends in the sports. France man Jacques Arquetil won it five times in the late 50s and early sixties,Eddy Merckx of Belgium also was a five time winner in the late 60s and early seventies,another France man Bernard Hinault won it five times in the late 70s and early 80s.The last of the legends was Spain's Miguel Indurain who is the guy that came close to matching what Lance Armstrong had already accomplished, winning the tour five straight times from 1991-1995. So Lance's place as a great rider is already sealed. If he comes and wins one,two,three more tour de France I do not think that it is doing to add to his legacy.I doubt whether he would be able to win those number of tour de France to begin with.

Lance Armstrong comeback is regarded as a nightmare to a sports that has been marked by doping allegations and past winners being stripped of their crowns.He by the way is the only one in the list of legends in the sports of cycling that has been followed with allegations of doping throughout his tour the France wins. Miguel Indurain won five tours in the 90s and there was no talk of doping. The other legends of the sports also won and there was no doping allegations.To his credit Lance Armstrong has always subjected himself to the drug testing during his tour de France wins and some of the allegations about him came way after he has won the event. The one that comes to mind was when he was accused of using EPO during his first tour win in 1999.The allegation did not surface until the year 2005.A book had been written about Lance Armstrong in foreign languages out landing how he cheated during his tour de France wins. I do not know why the book was not publish in the English. So this is the background story that Lance Armstrong would carry around as he embarks on his comeback tour. Cycling is fighting very hard to clean its image and they seem to be losing that battle and with Lance now in the big tours, I can just imagine the press that would be going after him especially when he gets into next year's tour de France.