So Lance retired (briefly). When he left the sport he said he wanted to try something else. He seems to have done some marathon running and mountain biking, but found them both a bit hard (i.e. didn’t win). Perhaps he then thought, ‘sod it, I’m bored’ and decided to go back to road racing. Alternatively maybe several major sponsors saw a dive in their profits following a drop in sales of products previous endorsed by Herr Armstrong and waved cheques with an increasing number of zeroes at Lance until he could be persuaded to come back from retirement.
There can be little doubt that Armstrong’s return to the sport will boost publicity for the sport and if it gets some more people riding bikes as a result it can be no bad thing. Other riders in the pro peloton, don’t necessarily look forward to his return, probably in much the same way that Formula 1 drivers would be pretty miffed if Schumacher came out of retirement. Both were at the top of their game when they retired. Sure they might have peaked, but the fear will always be that they are so both supremely talented in their respective disciplines that the current batch of competitors would be right to be concerned about them coming back and stealing victories that might otherwise have gone to younger folk.
It’s going to be an interesting year for sure.
R O T H A R . C O M 
Schumacher was only ever accused of some silly decisions that he sometimes got away with though. Armstrong comes with an awful lot of drugs baggage that may or may not be true but anything to add to the drug stories is not good for those new “clean” athletes.
Whether they are is another matter but I’d like to believe. One day I’ll be right. Won’t I?
;0)
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