Tour de France

Armstrong announces return for 2009 Tour

Article published on the 2008-09-10 Latest update 2008-09-10 13:42 TU

A screen grab from Lance Armstrong's website shows a video blog entry where Armstrong announces that he is coming out of retirement.
(Photo: Reuters)

US cycling legend Lance Armstrong has said he will return to the Tour de France next Summer to try for a ninth victory. He took seven consecutive yellow jerseys from 1999 to 2005 and will turn 37 later this month.

Armstrong said the recent Beijing Olympics had shown that age was no longer a barrier to top-level performance. He cited the 41-year-old US swimmer Dara Torres and the 38-year-old Romanian Tomescu who took gold in the women's marathon.

He said he hoped to raise awareness for what he called "the global cancer burden" by returning to the peloton.

The manager of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, said Armstrong would be welcome as long as he submitted himself to the anti-doping regulations.

Armstrong's team has not been decided but the Spaniard Alberto Contador said he would welcome him in his Astana team