Lance Armstrong aims to win Tour of Switzerland
Lance Armstrong is looking strong to outdo his own performance once again. In the 2010 Tour of Switzerland, Armstrong finished the seventh stage of the race at seventh place. Armstrong was also able to do pretty good at the sixth stage as well that covers 208 km and is an equally tough one. The stage comprises a total of 202 km stretch that concluded on Friday. The race over all consists of nine stages and envelops a total distance of 1329 km which makes it difficult for many participants.
Stage seven of the race was won by BMC rider Marcus Burghadrt, making this his second win of the series. This was another hard stage that consists of a long hilly track stretching up to 127 miles starting from Savognin going up to Wetzikon. The yellow jersey went to Robert Gesink from Team Rabobank for yet another day whereas Lance Armstrong has consistently held his seventh place overall. On Friday’s race, Armstrong stayed in the main pack for a large chunk of the race, finishing five minutes behind the winner.
Lance Armstrong is one of the most beloved cyclists ever, who has the record of winning the Tour de France championship on seven different occasions. Due to these performances, Armstrong was dubbed as the ‘king of cycling’ for almost the entire period after the year 2000. This American man took cycling and the Tour de France in particular, to a new level of popularity and fame in the United States.
The cycling icon announced his retirement in 2005, but decided to return back to racing in the year 2009. His comeback was marked with his finish at the third place in the last year’s Tour de France.
During his career, Lance was accused of doping as well as using other performance-enhancing drugs on more than few occasions. However, none of the accusations have been proved to be true. The worst of the allegations that he had to face this year was in May when his old friend Floyd Landis accused him of not only using drugs himself but also said that drug taking techniques were also taught by him to Landis. He further explained that Armstrong assured him that he will not be caught by any official during the drugs test. Landis also disclosed the names of several other cyclists as well as officials in his e-mails which were sent to officials in the United States as well as in Europe. He confessed of using performance-enhancing drugs for almost his entire career.
Other famous cyclists panelised by him were George Hincapie, who is the current United States road racing national champion, Levi Leipheimer, who holds the three-time Tour of California Championship and also the five-time United States time trial champion David Zabriskie.
Landis had been charged for doping previously as well when he was stripped of his title after winning the 2006 Tour for he found having positive reports of synthetic testosterone in his urine during the race. However, despite all his allegations, Armstrong’s drug usage is still controversial to say the least. As one of the toughest competitors for the upcoming 2010 Tour de France, these allegations might go against him.
He is expected to race for Team RadioShack in the tour. Previously, he had been part of several teams including Astana, Motorola, Cofidis and later the United States Postal Service team before he announced his retirement. When Armstrong returned to the sport after his successful recovery from the intense fight against brain and testicular cancer in 1998, it was the same United States Postal Service team which signed him.
Now, as he heads towards the upcoming Tour de France, the cycling world expects much from him and it is hoped by hundreds and thousands of fans that the record maker would redefine his record by winning the Tour de France for the eight time.
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