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Lance Armstrong speaks(Image credit: CN)

Team camp report, January 27, 2004

To the latter Armstrong answered, "Life is still as busy as it always was and the training has not changed all that much. My profile has just changed a little in the media. So when people see that I am attending a movie premiere at 7:30pm they start to worry," he laughed. "I can tell you that there's not one professional cyclist that I know that goes to bed at 7:30pm. I'm not just sitting on the beach all day eating doughnuts; I know what I'm doing."

In terms of his race program, Armstrong said that the team would follow pretty much the same program as last year, with the exception of a race in the US. "We'll start in Portugal then go onto Milan-San Remo, the Criterium International and of course the Tour de France," he said. "We're still working on the domestic program. There will definitely be one US race in there, either Tour de Georgia or Tour of the Gila, we're not quite sure yet," he said.

"I'll spend about six weeks here," he added, "although I don't know exactly where I will train. It's tough to find the right place in April. It's still too cold in Colorado but we'll be looking for a place that has long hard climbs and no traffic. California is as good a place as any. So it could be here. It's too early to head to the Pyrenees yet. You can't really get into that area. We've made the mistake of trying to go too early before and we won't be doing that again."

The Olympics is a goal for all riders this year and Armstrong is no different. However, Armstrong pointed out how hard it will be for athletes to back up for the race with the Tour de France ending just 20 days earlier. "They have to select me first though," he said. "It will be tough. The first 20 days after the Tour de France are very tough. Potentially the best riders at the Olympics are those that don't go to the Tour de France, or those who ride the Tour as preparation for the Olympics. If you are giving the Tour everything it will be tough to ride well at the Olympics."

Armstrong explained that he didn't think this year's Tour was going to be too much different from previous years, apart from the time trial up l'Alpe d'Huez. "I see this year's Tour as a similar Tour to 2002, especially the first two mountain days. The biggest difference is the new rule in the time trial [maximum loss of 2.5 minutes for any team]. I still don't understand this rule but it's their race and they're free to make the rules. If there's a team who knows at the half way mark that they aren't going to make the time cut, then they'll just sit up and rest for the next day."

As for being beaten in one of the time trials last year, he wasn't that concerned and urged others that it's not something they should really be concerned about either. "I gotten beaten for many reasons in the first time trial last year, but it was mainly because Jan was better than me," he assured the skeptics. "Since then we have looked at bike positioning and equipment and we have made a few changes. There's no reason to be concerned about that, it's not like I went from being the best time trialler in the world to being the worst. Everything's coming along well now."

"It's really the only chance to get all 25 riders and 25 staff together at the same time and it's simply a good way to get the season started," said Armstrong. "We have a bigger team this year. We have 25 guys so we've been trying to split it up a bit out training. [Solvang] is a fantastic place and we have been blessed with the weather. I thought last year we were blessed, but this year has been just as good."

The team has seen a couple of high-profile departures during the off-season in Roberto Heras and Christian VandeVelde. "Heras was obvious, said Armstrong. "He went to a Spanish team and Liberty Seguros wanted a Spanish rider. Financially and professionally it was good for him. Christian was different. I think he felt he had the chance to get himself back into some of the bigger races for his career. In both of those cases there's no hard feelings. We still live in the same town in Spain. We wish them well and it will be a good experience for them. Manolo [Sáiz] is a good director and he'll get the best out of them.

"We're confident that he can do the same job that Roberto did. If you look at past videos of the Tour you'll see why. He was always a rider we had to mark. We could never let him get a lot of time in a break because he was always up there in the mountains and he's a good time trialler as well. He comes from a very strong team and he is a very well rounded rider with a lot of experience and committed to the team."

One notable feature of the 2004 line up is the number of Belgian riders in the squad. "We have a lot of Belgians on the team this year," said Armnstrong. "I really trust the Belgians. They know cycling better than most people. I first met the two new Belgians [Stijn Devolder and Jurgen Van Den Broeck] in Austin [in November]. They seemed pretty nervous which is understandable. They have warmed up now though. They still don't say much, but that's okay. We have plenty of people here who don't stop!"