Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel) returned to racing in 2005 with a low key performance in the prologue of Paris-Nice, finishing in 140th place out of 168 riders. The American, who has not made a goal of doing well in Paris-Nice, grinned wryly as he quipped that it was, "probably the worst time trial of my life...I've achieved my first goal. I survived the prologue. I'll try to stay with the peloton in the next few days. I think that it will be hard to follow them, but I hope to reach Nice."
Armstrong admitted that the cold, jetlag, and most importantly, lack of racing kilometres affected him today. "Man I was cold today - I froze!" he was quoted by Sportwereld as saying. "This was extremely hard...My condition is really nothing special. I've actually never stopped training, but I'm behind compared with other years. I stayed a lot longer in the US and I only came back to Girona on Thursday. The jetlag is still in the legs. I'm still a bit too heavy...
