Armstrong up a gear in training for Le Tour
Lance Armstrong has a plan ... he always has a plan.
Sport | Armstrong up a gear in training for Le
Tour
Armstrong up a gear in training for Le Tour
Lance Armstrong appears back on track in his bid to extend his record of Tour de France wins to seven in July after some hard training sessions in the mountains of the Canary Islands. This is in spite of the fact that he surprisingly dropped out of his first race of the season, the Paris-Nice "race to the sun" in early March.
The Texan finished 24th yesterday in the hilly Paris-Camembert single-day race which finishes in the Normandy town of Vimoutiers, confirming that he is in shape for his first one-day Classic of the season, the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
Asked what he had been doing since the Paris-Nice, Armstrong recently joked: "Nothing - I've just been partying, drinking beer, eating pizza, and reading the nonsense in the newspapers." More seriously, he explained: "I'm working very hard at the moment. I've spent several days training in the Canary islands, and tried to focus on some longer efforts, longer climbs."
Armstrong was prominent in the peloton yesterday as the Paris-Camembert tackled several long hills in south Normandy, finishing in the main group seven seconds behind the winner, Laurent Brochard of France. Afterwards, he disappeared into a car where his rockstar girlfriend Sheryl Crow was waiting.
The cancer survivor brought his return to racing forward to include last Sunday's Fleche Brabanconne event near Brussels, in which he finished 43rd, 3min 43sec behind the reigning world champion, Oscar Freire of Spain.
This Sunday, the Tour of Flanders is planned to be the Texan's final race in Europe before the Dauphiné Libéré stage race, his final Tour de France build-up event in mid-June. After the Belgian Classic he will return to the US, where he will compete in the Tour de Georgia from April 19 to 24.
"The Tour of Flanders is a beautiful race, but don't expect me to play a leading role. I will be totally at the service of my team," said Armstrong, who is expected to help his team-mate George Hincapie.
Any doubts about Armstrong's form are as nothing compared to the uncertainty surrounding his rival Jan Ullrich. The German has been ill, will not start racing until the Circuit de la Sarthe in France on April 5, and yesterday his T-Mobile team received a public warning from their management about their poor results this season.
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on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 at 6:10 PM.
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