....upcoming Tour challenge
On a cold evening in early March, Cyclingnews found six-time Tour de
France champion Lance Armstrong and his Discovery Channel team at
Paris-Nice, in a two star Kyriad motel east of the French industrial
burg of Clermont-Ferrand. It had been a stressful day for Armstrong, as
the snow-shortened stage had been reduced to an hour of hard all-out
racing, after which Armstrong had to go to medical control and arrived
back at the motel late, tired and hungry. But after he'd had a bowl of
soup and a shower, Lance Armstrong sat down with Cyclingnews European
editor Tim Maloney for an exclusive chat.
Digging through my photo archives recently I found this image of
Armstrong at the 2000 Tour de France prologue at Futuroscope. I spin my
laptop round to show him the pic. It's less than five years ago, but
the scene at a Tour de France stage these days would be very different.
Cyclingnews: Does this bring back any memories? Do you remember back in
the day, when it wasn't a battle zone outside the team bus?
Lance Armstrong: Oh I was just gonna say... it looks pretty relaxed
there! Yeah, it's gotten more hectic for sure, at the starts and
finishes and hotels... just life in general. It's gotten more difficult
(for me) to escape. The first reaction I had when I saw the picture was
'God, now I wouldn't be able to just stand there and give an interview,
unless if it was three in the morning.'
courtesy Cyclingnews.com