Armstrong's contract

Jet said:

From ProCycling news:
"Armstrong admitted that according to the terms of his contract with

his

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new employers he will be riding the Tour at least one more time, but

he

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maintained his prior position of not allowing himself to be drawn on
whether that one time will be 2005 or 2006. Once again, Armstrong

stated

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that he would ride a number of the spring Classics before deciding

whether

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to try for a seventh consecutive Tour win."

<snip>

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Why he's being cagey, except to take the pressure off, and/or to

disorient

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his rivals (who?)...is a matter for speculation. I don't see the few

that

Maybe he just wants to focus on some of the classics before deciding
whether to ride the Tour? That would allow him to put a legitimate
effort into spring races then afterwards see whether the program
resulted in good enough form to contest the Tour. Seems to me like
it's not necessarily cagey.

Janek

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If he only makes the podium, then he'd come back with a vengeance next
year. He wants to go out in grand style, as a winner - smart - and not just
fade away.

IMHO, I think that's true but with basically a little different twist on it:
It seems that there might be a little bit of something in the back of his head
that makes him want to silence the folks that say he's a great TDF rider but
that's all.
He seems to be giving strong consideration to proving them wrong.
My guess is that his program right now is geared towards the classics but that
he and Carmichael, et al will look at how that progresses and if the
physiological indicators say he's not going to do it well, he'll turn towards
the Tour again.
Just my prognostication...
Wes

(Wesley Best) said:

Quoted message said:

If he only makes the podium, then he'd come back with a vengeance next
year. He wants to go out in grand style, as a winner - smart - and not just
fade away.

IMHO, I think that's true but with basically a little different twist on it:
It seems that there might be a little bit of something in the back of his head
that makes him want to silence the folks that say he's a great TDF rider but
that's all.
He seems to be giving strong consideration to proving them wrong.
My guess is that his program right now is geared towards the classics but that
he and Carmichael, et al will look at how that progresses and if the
physiological indicators say he's not going to do it well, he'll turn towards
the Tour again.
Just my prognostication...
Wes

Had you seen the interview with Mart Smeets, you might not feel that way,
though fair point. LA says point blank that there will never be another
rider that can ride the Giro, Flanders, the Word's, and the hour record
plus the Tour like Merckx did - all in the same year.

So there's absolutely no point in him trying to 'silence the critics' he
says. He'll be doing those purely for his own benefit - his still liking to
ride and suffer. I could quote the interview if you're interested, or you
can dl it from ED's site.

Still doesn't mean he won't do what you suggest but maybe for different
reasons.

Because he's got the six, it takes the pressure off of him to be in shape
and be at the Tour in July, with few injuries. Should he do Flanders but
have a crash, no big deal in the big picture...but nobody's gonna televise
Flanders except maybe an hour's synopsis on OLN. So it brings nothing to
Discovery....OTOH, maybe, if OLN still has the TdF broadcast rights,
Discovery will snag the Flanders broadcast rights? Still haven't seen
anything from either of them on who will broadcast what.

My feeling? He'll figure out when to do the hour record, find a site, build
a Velo, and do it, then do the Tour. Maybe race some minor races like Tour
of Georgia like he did last year to get in racing shape. Next year he'll do
Flanders and the Tour (maybe). If he wins seven and is still healthy and
the new team shows their ability, then he'll do the Tour in 06 and at the
end of that win or lose, retire at 34, having the distinction of being the
oldest rider to win >5, yada, yada...

jj

He's not riding Georgia this year, he's already said that. He'll be
in Europe riding Spring classics at that time of the year.

He's not going to build a velodrome just to attempt the hour record,
that would be incredibly stupid when there are already fast tracks out
there.

The so-called "new" team is not that much different from the old team,
so I'm not sure what you're talking about saying if they show their
ability. For most of the team, their abilities on the bike have
already been seen in the past whether they were riding for what was
Postal, or other teams in Division I. It's not like they went out and
got a bunch of guys who had never raced before, or were neo pros. I'd
say the depth on Discovery this year is incredible. Lots of guys who
have good results with lots of experience.

Tom

Tom said:

He's not riding Georgia this year, he's already said that. He'll be
in Europe riding Spring classics at that time of the year.

Oh, right, I read he's not doing Georgia. Then one-day races in Europe?

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He's not going to build a velodrome just to attempt the hour record,
that would be incredibly stupid when there are already fast tracks out
there.

He has already talked about that. He want somewhere at altitude and says
there's no tracks where he's looked and doesn't want to be outside and at
the mercy of the wind and weather. He's specifically said he might build
the Velodrome and then take it down when he's done. Cycling news maybe?

Ah, yes.

"I think the trick with the Hour Record is where you do it. Obviously we
can do it in Manchester where it's been done several times. Ideally we
would look for a high-altitude location and as we all know, there are not
that many covered velodromes at altitude, so then you're at the mercy of
the winds and the elements outside, or the temperature if it's not exactly
in the summertime. We want to do it at altitude and it's just a question of
where we go, what we find and if we build a velodrome to do it, and then
take the velodrome down. And I think that's probably the most likely
scenario as of today: Do we want to cover Colorado Springs and resurface
it, or do go to Salt Lake City or somewhere like that and build a new
velodrome?"

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The so-called "new" team is not that much different from the old team,
so I'm not sure what you're talking about saying if they show their
ability. For most of the team, their abilities on the bike have
already been seen in the past whether they were riding for what was
Postal, or other teams in Division I. It's not like they went out and
got a bunch of guys who had never raced before, or were neo pros. I'd
say the depth on Discovery this year is incredible. Lots of guys who
have good results with lots of experience.

I agree, but we're talking working together, getting the new guys on board,
and replacing Floyd's role. But yes, deep abilities.

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Tom

jj