Lance Armstrong’s valiant return to the two-wheeled beast will not run through the great state of Georgia.  The Tour de Georgia will take a year off, hoping to return when corporate sponsors and state agencies can care again about sports after the Credit Crunch. Race officials couldn’t remotely begin to secure the reported $3.3m required to ride bicycles on Georgia streets.

(Maybe the Tour de Georgia didn’t care much for Lance’s new cycling team director)

Of course, you’d have to think Coca-Cola, AT&T, and other past and likely future sponsors would have latched onto a sure thing in this uncertain ad market if… say, Lance had ever officially committed to the event.

Instead, he coyly flirted with the race as a primer for the 2009 Tour de France (assuming he does) until Tour de Georgia officials had to flush the race or get off the pot and pedal, as the saying goes.
Read more…

Looks like Americans are once again going to care about skinny men riding bicycles through the mountains of France: Lance Armstrong is giving up his nightly outings with Matthew McConaughey to return to the world of cycling.

The plan is thus: Armstrong, who turns 37 this month, will race in the Amgen Tour in California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia and the Dauphine-Libere before returning to the Tour de France next year, which he’s already dominated 7 times. The best part about it? According to MSNBC, he’ll be doing it “for no salary or bonuses”. Just for the pure love of the game.

Read more…