Armstrong: 'I'm doing all right for an old man'
Tour de France king preparing to race in Tour Down Under next week
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Armstrong to race again Jan. 13: Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong is training for his comeback race in Australia. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports. |
ADELAIDE, Australia - Lance Armstrong got a warmer reception Down Under than he might have liked.
After a four-hour training ride around the South Australia capital Tuesday, the seven-time Tour de France winner assessed the local conditions in an update on his social networking Web page.
“Got up to 105 (degrees) here today. Insanely hot,” Armstrong wrote.
The testicular cancer survivor will make his professional comeback with the Astana team in the six-stage Tour Down Under from Jan. 20-25.
His motivation for a comeback to professional cycling at age 37, and another shot at the Tour de France, was to campaign for cancer awareness.
Armstrong visited the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital to see some cancer survivors and staff, saying “they all inspire me so much.”
In a television interview, Armstrong said he was coming to grips with a return to competition.
“I’m doing all right for an old man,” he told Australia’s Ten network. “I feel like I’ve trained hard. The difference will be (in) going from training pace to actually racing.
“No matter how much you train, the body has to adjust to that tempo.”
Police and support vehicles followed the Astana team in what was Armstrong’s second training session since arriving in Australia on Sunday night.
On Friday, he will be the guest at an exclusive dinner at the Adelaide Town Hall to raise funds for the Cancer Council of South Australia. He is due to compete in a Cancer Council race on Sunday.
As well as the Tour Down Under, Armstrong’s race schedule for 2009 will include the Giro d’Italia and an attempt to win an unprecedented eighth Tour de France.
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