Guess Who? (cont.)

Lance Armstrong worked for Leipheimer at the TOC, but their roles may be reversed in France. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Last Thursday evening, 90 or so minutes after completing the longest stage of the race (134 miles, from Visalia to Paso Robles) and on the eve of his first time trial since July 2005, Armstrong walked in the side door of the facility. He spent 20 minutes chatting with a half-dozen cancer survivors, followed by another 20 minutes standing and signing autographs. Would it have been smarter to be off his feet? "Honestly, that didn't even register," Armstrong said later. "These events are cool for me. I'm getting as much inspiration as I'm giving, you know?"

Like that pitchfork, Armstrong's comeback is two-pronged, divided into his day job and his life's work. On the September morning he made his comeback official, he detailed a plan to link his riding to the Livestrong Global Cancer Campaign. "Racing the bicycle all over the world," he said, "is the best way to get the word out." So it is proving to be: Between stages at January's Tour Down Under, Armstrong met Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd. Armstrong's advocacy resulted in more funding for cancer research from Rudd's government.

After finishing seventh in the Tour of Cali, Armstrong stole a little more of Leipheimer's thunder when his foundation sent a blast to reporters announcing that the Livestrong Global Cancer Summit will take place in Dublin in August, following Armstrong's participation in the five-day Tour of Ireland.

So, is he a pro rider moonlighting as a globe-trotting anticancer crusader or vice-versa? It's not always clear; Armstrong keeps a cleated shoe in each world. As he sprawled across a lounge chair in his hotel room last Saturday, his conversation ranged from the unusually long prologue that will kick off the 2009 Tour de France ("Fifteen kilometers, and it's not flat") to the $6.5 billion for cancer research that Senator Arlen Specter helped secure in the stimulus bill.

This was the morning after the time trial, in which he placed 14th -- 76 seconds behind Leipheimer, who covered the rolling 15-mile course in a blistering 30:40, eight seconds faster than Dave Zabriskie of Garmin-Slipstream, who also finished second overall. "Not bad" was Armstrong's assessment of his own ride. "I had higher expectations and probably put too much pressure on myself, so it's good to have people around to remind me, 'Dude, you've been gone for three years, not three months.'"

Armstrong's TOC role was to serve as a sort of superdomestique for the 35-year-old Leipheimer. Asked if he would be returning the favor at the Tour of Italy in May and/or the Tour de France in July -- grand tours Armstrong intends to contest -- Leipheimer said tactfully, "I would hope so because that would mean that Lance is riding extremely well, back to the level that he was when he was winning seven Tour de Frances." Yes, he concluded, in that case he would be "ecstatic" to serve as the Texan's errand boy. Implicit in that answer: And if Lance is not riding up to his former level and I'm stronger, I fully expect him to fetch water bottles for me.

This is going to be tasty. Basically, Astana won the Tour of Cali with one hand tied behind its back. It competed without several of its top riders, including Alberto Contador, 26, the supremely gifted Spaniard who won the '07 Tour de France and has two other grand tour victories on his résumé.

For whom will Astana ride at the '09 Tour de France? Alberto or Lance? Youth or experience? Astana general manager Johan Bruyneel, the calculating Belgian with eight Tour team wins to his credit, doesn't sound overly worried, saying, "It is on the road that these questions are usually answered."

But if it's close, might Armstrong and Contador each secretly lobby teammates to ride in support of him rather than the other guy? The Texan recoils at such a suggestion. "I'll do the right thing," he vows. "People warn me that if I don't win, I'll mess up my legacy. No. If I go to the Tour and ride selfishly, if I ride against somebody, and we all lose, that will hurt the legacy. I have no interest in that."

Lance is a different athlete from three years ago. His comportment in the peloton is slightly different. He's a little calmer, more mature." The speaker is Michael Barry, whose book Inside the Postal Bus recounts his days as the Texan's teammate. Barry now rides for Team Columbia-Highroad in support of another freakish talent.

With apologies to Armstrong and Leipheimer, there was no more incandescent light in this race than 23-year-old Mark Cavendish, a brash Brit who won two days running -- in stages 4 and 5 -- in the rolling street brawl that is a field sprint. A hard man from the Isle of Man, Cavendish gratefully accepted a textbook lead-out from his teammates, then unleashed the most savage acceleration in cycling. "When they drop me off with 200 meters to go," he said after stage 4, "there's really only gonna be one outcome."

Remind you of anyone?

And the other young riders, were they resentful of the old man's return? Let's ask Matt Crane, 23, who was awarded the Most Courageous Rider jersey after escaping on a long breakaway in stage 5. Crane rides for a U.S. team called Jelly Belly, which values every second one of its jerseys appears on television. Did he resent Armstrong's siphoning of media attention from his team?

"Having him back is a great thing," replied Crane, who grew up in Connecticut. "Lance started winning Tours right around the time I started riding and racing a bike. He was the guy I worshipped for years. Before my mom repainted the walls in my room, they were covered in Lance posters."

So what if the guy's a black hole for media attention? "When Lance is here, we get bigger crowds, more TV coverage, which makes the sponsors happy," says Voigt. "In his slipstream we live well."

The last word goes to the peloton's foremost wordsmith, Barry: "The races Lances is doing, the attention he's bringing to cycling -- it's good for everybody. It's going to be an unbelievable season."

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