MORZINE, France, (Reuters) – A day after his dreams of an eighth Tour de France victory were all but ended, Lance Armstrong was back on the bike for a training ride as the peloton enjoyed a rest day yesterday.
The 38-year-old American, who dropped to 39th in the standings after finishing the eighth stage 11:45 behind Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, climbed up to the Col de Joux-Plane, where he cracked in the 2000 Tour.
“Good ride on the rest day. The Haute Savoie is gorgeous. Went around and climbed my old friend Joux Plane – hard one,” he wrote on Twitter.
Armstrong, who rarely crashed when he was dominating the field from 1999-2005, hit the tarmac in Sunday’s first Alps stage of the Tour, sustaining a knock on his left hip in the process.
The Texan, however, is expected to start Tuesday’s ninth stage to St Jean de Maurienne, with the intimidating 25-km climb to the Col de la Madeleine on the menu.
“(Levi) Leipheimer is still in the run. We will see how we can change our objectives, our ambitions,” Armstrong’s RadioShack team manager Johan Bruyneel, the man behind his seven Tour triumphs, said on Sunday.
