Tarnishing the legend?

There’s a big difference between placing second in a long distance mountain bike race and winning the Tour de France four years after retiring from professional competition. Even if, as a seven-time winner, you are the most successful rider in the history of the event.

But that’s exactly what Lance Armstrong has confirmed he will attempt.

I just don’t get it.

Sure, I understand how the fire in this most competitive of men could be stoked by watching older athletes perform brilliantly at the Beijing athletes, or encouraged by the slower performances seen on a Tour which is now policed more stringently (and successfully) than ever by the drug testers.

And, if successful, it would not be the first successful comeback by one of sport’s all-time greats. Michael Jordan won three NBA titles after un-retiring himself, although he was only 32 when he returned. Martina Navratilova returned to play mixed doubles at the age of 46 and won three further Grand Slam titles. And, closer to home, Juan Curuchet won gold in the men’s Madison event in Beijing at the age of 43.

But no one, with the possible exception of George Foreman (who, let’s remember, was hardly at his most svelte), has ever returned to successfully compete in an individual sport as physically punishing as cycling.

Armstrong will be two months short of his 38th birthday when the Tour de France kicks off next July. Only once has a rider over the age of 35 won the Tour: Firmin Lambot, who was 36 when he won the 1922 race.

Armstrong will not race the Tour just to make up the numbers; he will return in pursuit of extending his record to eight victories. Even if we assume – and it’s a huge if, even for an athlete with a physiology as outstanding as Armstrong’s – that he can achieve peak physical conditioning, he will need to find a team who are both strong enough to support his objectives and yet willing to put all their eggs in the Armstrong basket. Astana, led by Lance’s former US Postal and Discovery Channel directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel, would be the obvious choice, and yet they already possess two of the sport’s top riders, Levi Leipheimer and the 2007 maillot jaune Alberto Contador. Besides, they are not necessarily guaranteed a berth in the 2009 Tour, having been refused entry last year. CSC are arguably the strongest team overall, having supported the now departed Carlos Sastre to victory in this year’s Tour, but they already have two strong contenders in Frank and Andy Schleck and are unlikely to disrupt a well-balanced and harmonious team even for an ageing superstar. There is no space for a second team leader beside Alejandro Valverde at Caisse d'Epargne. Columbia includes Armstrong’s old lieutenant, George Hincapie, but they will go to next year’s Tour looking to support the world’s best sprinter, Mark Cavendish, and Armstrong has always demanded a team with a single-minded focus and objective: propelling him to victory. If I had to put an each-way bet on anyone, it would be Garmin-Chipotlé, a squad of not inconsiderable strength run by former US Postal teammate Jonathan Vaughters and British cyclist David Millar, a friend of Armstrong’s. Sure, they have a contender of their own in Christian Vande Velde, but he represents an outside chance at best for Tour victory in 2009, despite Vaughters' claims in the media yesterday that he can be better than Armstrong.

Anyhow, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The 2009 Tour is still a long way away, and there remain many obstacles in the way of even the great Lance Armstrong. If he were to return and triumph on the Champs Elysées, well, you just couldn’t write the script, could you? But to do anything less would tarnish the legend of one of the greatest names in all of sport, not just cycling. Armstrong clearly feels that, at this point, the odds in his favour are good. I just hope we’re not heading for a footnote in the career of an all-time great that we would rather forget. I'd rather just remember Lance for what he was: the greatest cyclist of his generation. But I guess that's what makes a great champion - they don't just settle for what they have already achieved. Whatever happens, it will be one hell of a story.