From the website for the Adelaide, Australia Tour Down Under:

Lance Armstrong to Race at 2009 TDU

World cycling superstar Lance Armstrong is to make his official comeback to professional road cycling racing at South Australia's 2009 ProTour Tour Down Under.
Premier Mike Rann said he was delighted to make the announcement today, about eight hours ahead of the American cycling legend's news conference in New York later tonight SA time.
"Lance participating in the Tour Down Under will mean the biggest influx of overseas and interstate visitors to any sporting event in South Australia's history.
"Attracting world cycling icon Lance Armstrong to begin his comeback in South Australia is a major coup for the State and will place the Tour Down Under front and centre of the world professional cycling events.
"Lance Armstrong's global profile has the potential to double the 15 000 people who come to SA to watch the race, and we are told we can anticipate a quadrupling of worldwide media coverage for the event - because of his immense popularity.
"Given that the TV coverage of this year's Tour Down Under amounted to 84 hours of international TV coverage throughout Europe, India, Asia and Northern America this year - the exposure for both the race and for South Australia next year will be massive.
"In January this year, the Tour resulted in more than $17 million being pumped into the State's economy, and a total of 548 000 people watched the week long event.
"It's exciting the know the event next January will be bigger by a long way."
Mr Rann says Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor, had made it very clear that part of his comeback was to raise awareness of cancer and its global burden.

So Lance is going to hold a press conference tomorrow in NY about his Global Cancer Initiative, and then at another press conference on Thursday at Interbike, he will announce his plans for his return to cycling. Bummer that I can’t be at Interbike this year, but like everybody else, I had to tighten up on the spending....

A long-time reader, Burt, gave me a heads-up on an article in the Sydney Morning Herald that rumors about a “possible buyout” by Lance of the Tour de France from ASO, calling it an “audacious plan”. Huh? Is this April 1st or what? However, you can read it for yourself if you follow the link.

And then there’s the thing with Alberto Contador and Lance on the same team. Alberto has been tearing up the road with his wins since he was aced out of the 2008 Tour. He said that he welcomed Lance back to the cycling world, but more recently sounds like he is wondering if there is room for them both at Astana. Alberto feels that he has rightly won the title of team leader for 2009, especially at the TdF. However, he is wondering how that will work if Lance has that same goal... Don’t think Alberto would have any trouble finding another team, but sure hope we don't lose him... Stay tuned...

So Chechu Rubiera just signed with Astana for one more year... Can Lance be far behind? From Snowmass to Astana... How cool would it be if my Iron Man, Eke, got on two wheels instead of four in 2009 for Astana?

How nice to hear from so many of my readers, even though I have somewhat abandoned my blog. I especially appreciated the encouragement from John B., and thanks! So, by popular demand (a-hem) I’ll share what I am thinking about Lance’s return to the cycling world.

I did a memory lane thing and looked at some of my photos that I took at the Postal training camp in 2002. Go to my smugmug gallery http://www.velogal.smugmug.com/ to have a look at just a few of them. Wow, all the guys looked so young then. It was such an exciting time for all of us!

And then I looked at what I wrote in my last posting on the now defunct Unofficial Lance Armstrong Fan Club> Here’s what I said,

“September 23, 2007 - Quote from Lance in The Canadian Press on the Floyd Landis decision:
"Armstrong spoke briefly with reporters before he jumped on a bicycle, saying that his career focus now is on fighting cancer. He declined to answer questions regarding the decision a few days ago in which an arbitration panel stripped Floyd Landis of his 2006 Tour de France title because it said Landis used synthetic testosterone.

"I'd love to answer the question but unfortunately I'm out of that business," said Armstrong. "I'm here to fight cancer. I haven't looked online. I still love the bike and ride all the time but on the competitive side I'm just not engaged." He said cycling issues now are "just a distraction for me."

Velogal thinks that Lance's current feelings about his role in the cycling world are her cue to close down this Lance Fan Site. I started this site in December, 2000 as a tribute to Lance, and he has never let me down in his courage, honesty and integrity as a cyclist and a seven-time Tour de France Champion.

Along with messages from untold numbers of Lance's faithful fans, I have endured hate mail, personal threats, virus attacks, and deliberate spam usage of my email address. I have been proud to carry the Lance Armstrong Fan Club Banner for all those years. I have been honored to be invited to the team training camps for the last seven years. It has been a great ride with Lance and his team of high-class, hard working guys.

My focus for this site has been Lance in the cycling world, and it doesn't feel right to me to change the focus to following Lance around the world now. Lance already has plenty of coverage and support for his tremendous and inspiring fight against cancer.

Thanks to all the faithful and long-term fans of this site... “

Well, it sounds like Lance is back in that cycling biz again and, knowing Lance, he will ride, and train, and suffer, and give 100% to get ready for those races. And will he be with Astana? Jeeze, I cannot imagine that he would ride anywhere else.

Hmmm - I was just thinking what the ASO old boys might be saying when they heard the news... “Merde”, “Sacre Bleu”, Non, Non.. Mon Dieu!” “Quick, call zee cesspool at Chatenay Malabry and prepare some piss samples for 2009!”

So I guess you will be hearing from me from time to time. Not everyday, I’ve got other things going... Oh yeah - here come the same few haters, hitting the Comment button... Puleeze, I’ve already heard from you few, and know what you’re gonna say... So save it, I’m not gonna publish it... Get your own blog...