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He’s admittedly about four or five kilos above his Tour-winning weight, but other than that, he is riding as if he never left the sport for a day.
Lance Armstrong is talking the talk, walking the walk, and the walk is perhaps the most relaxed we’ve ever seen. In a year where, for the very first time, he is attempting to ride well, and could possibly even win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. The latter, if he pulls it off, would be for an astounding eight times.
So what gives?
“I’m relaxed because I’m havin’ fun. I’m havin’… a helluva lotta fun,” enthused Armstrong on Saturday in his first official press conference of the 2009 Tour Down Under, smiling as he said it.
It wasn’t a fake, rehearsed, flat-as-a-packet-of-Cup-a-Soup smile, either; it was the real deal.
“I’ll be totally honest with you – I wake up every day and despite what’s being said, I am doing this for free,” he reiterated, although earlier on, Armstrong cleared up some confusion that he was giving his undisclosed, and rumored very large, appearance fee to charity. He’s not.
“My relationship with Johan [Bruyneel]… I am volunteering. I asked him, ‘Can I come race for you? I’m racing for free.’
“I suppose I could’ve called other teams and I might’ve [got an offer]… But there’s no money in it. And so I’m doing it because I love to do it. I put on my clothes every day and I get on my bike because I want to go out and do it.
“And I can’t say 2004, 2005 was like that; I think it became a job. I recaptured that passion, I want to do it. I think that, by me going out there and living my life and having fun and telling the story [of how he beat cancer], I think it makes a difference.
I think it makes a difference from a Livestrong perspective, I think it makes a difference for cycling. I think it helps cycling, and I can’t say it any simpler that I’m just having a helluva good time.”
Who are we to stop Lance from havin’ fun?
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