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Armstrong says he healing, ready for Olympic ride
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Two-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said Tuesday he's ready to ride in the Olympics, declaring himself almost fully recovered from a broken neck vertebra in a training crash last month. Although his neck remains stiff, the American cycling star said he'll be ready for the road race on Sept. 27 and the Sept. 30 time trial, an event where he's among the gold medal favorites and one he has tailored his training to fit. "The neck is a slight problem," Armstrong told a news conference filled with dozens of reporters. "It's probably about 90 percent right now. I can still ride. I can still train and I will be able to race. Sitting on a time trial bike is not a problem." Armstrong, 29, broke the bone when he collided with a car Aug. 28 while training on a remote road in southern France. A time trial victory last weekend at the Grand Prix des Nations in northern France convinced Armstrong he was fit for the Olympics. |
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"There was only one reason to come and that's to win," he said. "I've never been to Australia, and while it looks like it would be a nice place for a vacation, that's not the reason I came."
Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, is riding at the Olympics for the third time. He placed 14th in the road race at Barcelona. At the Atlanta Games, he was sixth in the time trial and 12th in the road race.
However, when Armstrong competed in Atlanta, he still did not know that he had testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. His illness was diagnosed two months after he rode at the Games.
"Barcelona feels like a really long time ago ... and in Atlanta, at the time, I was very sick but I still expected to ride well," he said. "To come back a third time is very special to me, mainly because of the illness in Atlanta that I didn't know about."
Something about arriving in Sydney felt right to Armstrong.
"I was telling my wife when we got here last night it feels better this time," he said. 'I don't know why but I didn't feel at home in Barcelona and I didn't feel at home even in Atlanta. Last night, it was a good feeling when we landed."
On Tuesday morning, Armstrong took a training ride to inspect the road course. He was concerned the injury could affect him more during the mass-start road race than in the time trial, where riders are timed individually over a 29-mile circuit.
"Physically, I feel great. My conditioning is close to 100 percent," he said. "The scary part is trying o avoid another crash on the injury. But preparation-wise, conditioning-wise, everything's great."
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