The Tour De France ended on Sunday, and after a 3 year hiatus, the 37-year-old Texan Lance Armstrong stood upon the podium, but not quite in his usual position. Armstrong placed third in the Tour De France, a little out of his 7-time first place standing. But after over 3 years, placing third really isn’t all that bad and the buzz racing around the cycling world is that Lance Armstrong is expected to take first and get back to his old ways in 2010.
With the year’s Tour De France just barely over, media around the world has taken extreme interest in Lance Armstrong’s race for the title in the Tour De France 2010. I wonder how that makes this year’s winner Alberto Contador? 
Armstrong finished 5 minutes behind Contador, his junior by over ten years. Not bad for an old guy who hasn’t been on the scene for three years.
“It’s probably a good lesson for my kids,” said Armstrong in USA Today. “Either to their friends or at their school, they’d say their dad never lost a Tour, and that’s not always the best lesson in life. If their dad came back after a bunch of years off and finished third, that’s another lesson.
“Based on everything — my age, my time away, people’s expectations — it was a pretty good effort.”
If nothing else, Lance Armstrong knows how to draw a crowd. Tour De France numbers were up this year as compared to last, and USA Cycling membership has grown 5.5% this year, the same amount it grew back in 2005 when Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour De France title.
It will be interesting to see how much publicity Armstrong brings with him to next year’s Tour De France.
