ADELAIDE, Australia — Lance Armstrong forgot about his own comeback after a hot ride through the Adelaide Hills on Friday, instead turning his attention to the return of Floyd Landis from a doping suspension.
Armstrong was recovering from the fourth stage of the Tour Down Under, where he’s 38th among 124 riders and 39 seconds off the lead, when the seven-time Tour De France winner endorsed Landis’ planned return to cycling in February’s Tour of California.
There was mild irony that Armstrong began his day with a doping test and ended it discussing Landis, “a friend of mine and former teammate” whose failed doping test after victory in the 2006 Tour de France led to a two-year competitive exile.
Landis will end that suspension before riding the California event from Feb. 14-22, while Armstrong will use the same race to continue his comeback from a three-year retirement.
And Armstrong had no doubt Friday that Landis had earned the right to return.
“Other people serve their time just like everybody else, and when their time is up they get to go back to work,” Armstrong said. “Sometimes I get frustrated when people will pooh-pooh his return, when you’re going to stand up and cheer when David Millar returns. It’s the same thing. There was a suspension, (now) get back on the bike and let’s race.
British cyclist Millar was banned from cycling for two years in 2004 after admitting to using EPO earlier in his career.
“There’s no point in criticizing (banned cyclist Ivan) Basso or criticizing Landis,” added Armstrong. “I mean, you’ve paid your penalty. That’s normally the way society works. Let’s forgive and forget and get on down the road.”
Landis tested positive for abnormally high levels of testosterone after winning the critical 17th stage of the 2006 Tour, but has always claimed to be innocent of any doping offense.
He said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that his comeback would be “good for cycling” and Armstrong saw no reason to challenge that contention.
“It’s good that the strongest people in the world are in the biggest races in the world,” Armstrong said. “Floyd’s a friend of mine and a former teammate and he has a lot of fans. You have to remember he may have been found guilty but if you polled the people at the end of the trial, more than 50 percent thought he was innocent, so in regard to that it’s good that he’s back.”
Armstrong’s own comeback stayed on track Friday after the fourth stage of the Tour Down Under. He finished among the main bunch and was credited with 47th place, the same time as stage winner Allan Davis of Australia, who retained the leader’s jersey.
Armstrong’s former teammate George Hincapie, a key figure in his Tour de France wins, was 19th in Friday’s stage and remained in 12th place overall, 30 seconds behind Davis.
The fifth stage on Saturday has long been considered decisive: a 92-mile grind from Snapper Point to Willunga, including two cruel climbs up windblown Willunga Hill.
Armstrong has acknowledged it will be strength on those climbs that decides the tour’s outcome ahead of its sixth and final stage Sunday, around the streets of central Adelaide.
He may be too early in his own preparation — this is January and he is focused on the Tour de France in July — to win his first professional stage race in three years, but Armstrong is bold enough to hope he will make his presence felt.
“For sure, they’ll open up the race tomorrow,” he said. “I think I can be there. I may be crazy but I think I can be there. I know I won’t be riding away.”
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