Today a video was posted on LiveStrong.com with Lance confirming he plans to come back and win an 8th Tour de France. The Vanity Fair article that VeloNews said was to announce his comeback has also been posted online.

In the Vanity Fair article he says he had an epiphany at the Leadville 100. Even before that he must have been thinking about a comeback because he had already asked to be put back in the out-of-competition testing pool.

The impetus to come back, he says, sprang upon him quite unexpectedly over the summer, in Colorado. Armstrong had an epiphany on August 9 after placing second at the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain-Bike Race—a 100-mile “Race Across the Sky,” which climbs to more than 14,000 feet. That ascent, cycling upward in a crosscurrent, tripped something primal in him. “It wasn’t a lightbulb going off,” he says, but a realization, combined with a gradual frustration “with the rhetoric coming out of the Tour de France. Not just the Tour on TV but the domestic press, the international press, the pace, the speeds at which participants rode. It’s not a secret. I mean, the pace was slow.

“Then Leadville, this kind of obscure bike race, totally kick-started my engine. For me it’s always been about the process.… The process of getting there is the best part. You start the season a little out of shape, a little heavy. You get in better shape. You lose some weight. I mean you’re just crafting this perfect program. For several weeks I [had] trained [for Leadville] and went riding by myself. Obviously beautiful territory and fresh air, just feeling fit, losing weight, getting strong—living a very healthy lifestyle. I thought, This might be fun to try again.”

One correction to that quote from the Vanity Fair article is that the high point of the Leadville 100 is 12,600 feet instead of over 14,000 feet. The 14,000 number was also in articles when it was announced he was racing at the Leadville 100. It could be referring to the cumulative climbing during the race. I think there’s about 13,000 feet of climbing but I’ve also heard numbers higher than 14,000.

The Vanity Fair article addresses the question of why he’s coming back. He says it’s all about increasing cancer awareness and funding. He will announce an international LIVESTRONG strategy on September 24th in New York City at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Those close to him at the Lance Armstrong Foundation also realize it’s a huge risk. Even if he wins the Tour, it may not be a big deal to a lot of people. If he doesn’t win, people may use that to say he doped in the past to win.

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