Graham Bensinger • E-mail

After being retired for three years, Lance Armstrong has returned to professional cycling. In July, he’ll attempt to break his own record by winning an eighth Tour de France. As Armstrong currently trains for the first scheduled race of his comeback, Australia’s Tour Down Under, in January, his longtime trainer and coach Chris Carmichael spoke via phone to go “In Depth.”

Graham Bensinger: Upon Lance retiring, what did you think the chances were of him coming back?

Chris Carmichael: Well, I didn’t think he was going to come back at all. When he retired in 2005, he was just mentally drained. I think the seven straight tour victories took a lot out of him. He was definitely ready to step away from the sport and I thought he was stepping away for good.

GB: I guess seven Tour de France titles can do that to you. How was Colorado’s Leadville 100?

CC: Good. Lance trained hard and that’s really where he fell back in love with cycling. It wasn’t like he just woke up and said, “Geez, I’m gonna want to come back and start racing again and try to win the Tour [de France] an eighth time.” It slowly evolved over some time. There are a few things that fell perfectly in place. One, he started training for Leadville. At that same time, the Tour was going on and there was really no outstanding rider. Carlos Sastre won and he’s a deserving winner, but there was nobody that Lance felt like was taking over his throne. The guys that were up there were all athletes that he faced in his career and weren’t his great challengers. The Beijing Olympics were also going on where he saw Dara Torres make an incredible comeback and have a fantastic performance. Plus, Michael Phelps’ outstanding performance… All of these things were slowly sinking in his head. I think he also realizes that he can spread his Livestrong initiative globally and it can have a much greater impact from an awareness standpoint if he’s an active athlete. Everything came together at the right time to kind of create this perfect storm for him to return to professional cycling.

GB: When did Lance even first bring up the possibility of a return to you?

CC: It was probably at the beginning of July or so. He said something nonchalantly on a training ride. “Hey, what if we keep going after Leadville?” I thought he meant doing another ultra-endurance mountain bike race because the Leadville 100 is a 100 mile ultra-endurance mountain bike race. I said, “I think there’s one in British Columbia,” and he stopped me saying, “No, no. I’m talking about… what if we go back to the Tour?” I’m like, “Huh. Are you serious?” He said, “Maybe yes, maybe no.” Then, there was more discussion around it each day.

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GB: When he finally made the decision that competing in the 2009 Tour de France is indeed what he wanted to do, what was your reaction?

CC: Initially, I was pretty hesitant. I said, "Let’s look at all the downside of this and the potential upside." There’s a lot more downside. That’s what I was telling him. I said, "I just don’t think it is a good idea." I sent him a follow-up email about it. The following time we were together he said, “Look, I appreciate your opinion, but I’m going to do this.” It was my responsibility for me to give him my straight-from-the-gut answer without it being sugar-coated and then he decides on what he wants to do. Once he made that decision, I got excited because it’s pretty cool.

GB: Let’s give this some context. I was just listening to an interview we did a couple years back. You said Lance is a good friend and a great athlete, but he’s very intense. So how much does his decision to come back affect your life?

CC: It affects it quite a bit. I end up spending three or four months out of the year with him. It’s a big commitment on my part. From Lance’s retirement, I had yet to fill that void of working with another elite athlete. I’ve had three kids and was enjoying time with my family. I was a little nervous about telling my wife. It took me about a week to kind of get up the courage before telling her. She was very supportive and very excited.