The return of Armstrong!

It was only a matter of time till this natural born athlete returned to cycling- this time he's doing it for Livestrong...

Picture on Feb 3rd, Santa Rosa, CA; Lance Armstrong, in yellow and black and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer head up King Ridge Road near Cazadero on a training ride. The ride was in preparation for the nine-stage Tour of California, which begins Feb. 14 in Sacramento

Cycling Web site Velonews.com is reporting Armstrong will come out of retirement in '09 to race in five international road races, including the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia in the U.S., as well as the Tour de France and two other European races.

According to the article, Armstrong would compete for the Astana team, which would reunite him with team manager Johan Bruyneel, his manager for all seven Tour de France wins.

Armstrong, who turned 37 on Sept. 18, '08 retired July 24, 2005, but has been competing in mountain bike racing in recent months and has completed three marathons in under three hours since taking up road running in 2006. (Source)

USA Cycling chief operating officer Sean Petty said that should Armstrong wish to return to racing, “it would be one of the most exciting things to happen to American racing since he won his seventh Tour. Depending on his plan, if that is what he wanted to do, it would be tremendously exciting and would generate a tremendous amount of attention on the sport, and on what he’s doing. People would be very interested to see how he would do in a comeback.” (source)

(Lance Armstrong waves to the crowd before the Tour Down Under cycling event in Adelaide January 18, 2009.)
And we all love a comeback, right!

Lance's old bike is up for sale- The bike is currently on display in Adelaide, Australia, and is being auctioned through ebay with bids ending on 31st January 09 at 16:36:18 AEDST. All the funds raised from the bicycle's sale will be donated to Livestrong, the foundation Armstrong setup and the reason he has quoted for his return to racing.

In December 2008, Armstrong announced that his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, was pregnant with his child. Although it was believed that Armstrong was unable to father children, this child was conceived naturally. The baby is due in June 2009 (Source)