Oy Vey!

Armstrong to Race for Astana in 2009
By JULIET MACUR for the NYT
Published: September 24, 2008

"Lance Armstrong, the cancer-survivor who retired after winning a seventh consecutive Tour de France in 2005, will resume his racing career in Australia in January, and will end his season after riding down the Champs- Élysées during the Tour de France in July.

Addressing the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Wednesday, Armstrong said he would convene the first global summit of the Livestrong campaign to raise cancer awareness in Paris after the Tour.

“I cannot guarantee an eighth Tour victory,” Armstrong said as he addressed a room filled with more than 60 heads of state and hundreds of others. "But I can guarantee that the Livestrong message will touch all aspects of our society , all continents of our society and certainly touch all the different aspects of cancer.”

...

Since his retirement, Armstrong has traveled the world to promote his cancer foundation, which he formed after surviving testicular cancer in the late 1990s. He also has been a staple on the social circuit, attending film premieres and dating actresses and singers."


Armstrong to race for Astana

Have we learned nothing from:

Michael Jordan
Muhammad Ali
Roger Clemens

I'm sure the list goes on ...

I know he says he's doing this to raise awareness for his foundation, but as a cycling fan, I REALLY don't want to see him huffing and puffing his way through the Alps.
Maybe he's really that good and he can compete on an international level at his age. If so, what does that say about the state of cycling today?

"When you retire too late, you damage your reputation. Michael Schumacher quit when he is still world class. You can only wish that all athletes made such decisions." — IAAF vice president Helmut Digel.