Armstrong to ride in Final Tour

Next month’s Tour de France will be his last, announced seven-time winner, Lance Armstrong.

Lance Armstrong

The 38-year old American, who has had a stellar career, seemed upbeat about his chances before the big tour, but maintained that it would be his last Tour de France, as he looked to win it as unprecedented eighth time. Though Contador will be the favorite to win it this year, Armstrong clearly is still one of the favorites this time around.

“And yes, this will be (my) final Tour de France. It’s been a great ride,” Armstrong tweeted.

“Looking forward to 3 great weeks.”

Armstrong’s career has been nothing short of inspirational as he overcame testicular cancer and took a break from professional cycling, and winning the Tour de France seven times between 1999 and 2005. He retired in 2005, only to come out of retirement and compete again, at age 37. Lance claims that he came back because he missed the thrill of competition and also wanted to raise awareness about cancer.

His career has always been blighted with accusations of drug use, but somehow Armstrong has managed to come out of these scar-free. The latest among these accusations was his former teammate Llandis (read about it here.)

The latest accusations prompted a flurry of finger-pointing and counter-accusations with Armstrong hitting back at Landis, who finally owned up to using performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials.

“It’s our word against his word,” Armstrong said at the time. “I like our word. We like our credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago.”

This year’s Tour de France starts with a prologue in Rotterdam on Saturday and ends in Paris on July 25.