Although he’s been dividing his training energy between cycling and swimming – and, prior to a knee injury, with running too – American rider Lance Armstrong has insisted that he is planning on being a factor in the Santos Tour Down Under.
In fact, the RadioShack captain suggests that working on those other disciplines has boosted his fitness levels.
“I'm definitely not flying halfway around the world to sit in the bunch,” he told the Herald Sun. “I feel I'm getting stronger every day, I've done a lot more cross training this year than I have in the past in regards to swimming and running if my knee holds up.
“It's really helped my cardiovascular stuff on the bike too. My legs were a little behind, (and) the lungs ahead of schedule - I'm just trying to get the two to line up.”
The Australian World Tour race will be the final international cycling event in the career of the rider, and he wants to make an impression in the six day event. He has ridden the race twice before, but has not been a factor in terms of stage victories or the general classification.
Organisers will hope that he will be motivated to put on a strong showing this time round, particularly as he is not concentrating on building form gradually for the Tour de France.
The Texan will line out alongside Australian veteran Robbie McEwen, who has won twelve stages in the Tour de France as well as three green jersey titles. He was recently signed to the team after the Pegasus Sports project was refused ProTeam and Pro Continental licences, putting its racing programme in disarray.
Also confirmed for the Santos Tour Down Under squad are triple Swiss champion Gregory Rast, Spanish climber Markel Irizar, Sebastian Rosseler, Ben Hermans and Manuel Cardoso, who 2009 Vuelta a España winner Alejandro Valverde, world champion Cadel Evans and promising young rider Peter Sagan to win stage three last year.
Armstrong has been training in Hawaii and is due to arrive in Australia prior to the January 18th start of the race. It’s likely he will take part in the Adelaide Cancer Council Classic on January 16th. Although it doesn’t count towards the overall classification, many riders use the street race as a warm-up event.