After a solid though not spectacular performance at the Brabantse Pijl in Belgium, Discovery leader Lance Armstrong is set to ride today's Paris-Camembert Lepetit as final preparation before Sunday's Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
Finishing in 43rd place last Sunday, 3'43 behind eventual winner Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Armstrong appears to have found the rhythmn of racing once again after an untimely exit from Paris-Nice earlier this month, where he contracted a fever as a result of unseasonally cold weather. As he has vowed to do in this weekend's Tour of Flanders, Discovery's Big Cheese was riding for the team's Classics captain, George Hincapie, who is in excellent form and finished the Brabantse Pijl in sixth place.
"He called me this afternoon and said he feels great in training and is hungry to race," said Bruyneel on ThePaceline.com. "He wants to race. That's definitely a good sign."
"The sensations he's had during training have been pretty good and I think he's back to where he's in similar condition at this point of the season as in past years," he added.
Joining 'the Boss' at Paris-Camembert will be: Cyclingnews diarist Tom Danielson, Ryder Hesjedal, Fumiyuki Beppu, Benjamin Noval, Jason Mccartney and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. said Danielson in his latest diary, "Normally I am not too excited about one day races, but this one I get to do with Lance, so I am pretty pumped.
"Not only am I here to help Lance out, but also to continue to make progress, learning about the peloton and how to race at this high level. I feel like I made some real progress last week at Setmana Catalana and I'm just so motivated to be learning from my amazing team."
Following the Ronde, Armstrong, along with a number of his Discovery team-mates, will return to the United States to defend his title at the Dodge Tour of Georgia, to be held from April 19-24. From there, he is likely to ride the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (June 5-12) and the ProTour team time trial in the Netherlands on June 19 as final preparation heading into the 92nd edition of the Tour de France.
