Tour de France - Armstrong: I'm going for number eight

Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is coming out of retirement and will attempt to win an eighth title.

"I am happy to announce that after talking with my children, my family and my closest friends, I have decided to return to professional cycling in order to raise awareness of the global cancer burden," he said in a statement.

The return of one of cycling's most dynamic figures had been rumoured in recent weeks but the 36-year-old American had remained silent until the Web posting.

Armstrong will compete in the 2009 Tour de France, the Amgen Tour of California, the Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, and the Dauphine-Libere, the cycling magazine Velonews reported Monday, citing anonymous sources.

Velonews said he would race for the Astana cycling team but its manager, Johan Bruyneel, said there had been no contact between Armstrong and the team.

Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer in the 1990s, won the Tour de France, cycling's most famous race, a record-breaking seven consecutive years from 1999-2005.

He has been an outspoken cancer advocate, raising funds and awareness of the disease.

Armstrong has lobbied President Bush to increase funding for cancer research and over the weekend questioned the two US presidential candidates about how they would go about accelerating the fight against the disease.

"This year alone, nearly eight million people will die of cancer worldwide," he said in his statement. "Millions more will suffer in isolation, victims not only of the disease but of social stigma.

"After the passage of Proposition 15 in Texas, a $3 billion investment in the fight against cancer which is helping to make this disease part of the national dialogue in America, it's now time to address cancer on a global level."

Reuters

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Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer in the 1990s...

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My dad says dealing with testicular cancer takes a lot of intestinal fortitude. So, does that mean dealing with intestinal cancer takes a lot of testicular fortitude?:Pokes::jabber::jester:

I hope he does have another shot at it. He was an amazing rider to watch, and truly inspirational for those who suffered a disease.

I loved watching the Tour de France this year :) I'd settle on the lounge at 10pm when the live coverage started, catch the first hour or two of the race, before falling asleep. The short update at 7.15am, then the highlight show at half-six in the evening to see how the race ended. If I didn't have to go to work, and eat, I'd not have left the lounge for a fortnight :rotfl:

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Originally Posted by paleseptember

I'd not have left the lounge for a fortnight :rotfl:

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I don't know what a fortnight is. Can you hold it your hand?

Edit: Looked it up, it's a period of 2 weeks, so unless you're holding a calendar or day planner, you can't hold a fortnight. So paleseptember wasn't talking about resisting a bribe. My bad. :)

Sorry jasong (and other A-merikins), it's a little piece of cultural trivia that the word 'fortnight' hasn't really caught on in your country.

It's derived from 'fourteen nights', hence 'fortnight', or two weeks; olde englishe, so much fun :)


And I wish that someone would bribe me to curl up on the lounge under a doona for significant amounts of time :D

riders on the pro circuit I wouldn't bet against him doing it. The man can climb and time trial all he needs is a good team around him.

Put him in the CSC team and it's game over.