Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will return to competition at this week’s Tour of the Gila in New Mexico after recovering from collarbone surgery, race organizers said on Tuesday.
After initially being barred from riding in the five-day event because of an International Cycling Union rule, Armstrong was subsequently cleared to compete as an individual.
The 37-year-old American, who broke his collarbone in four places during the first stage of Spain’s Vuelta Castilla y Leon last month, will compete with Astana team mates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner.
PHOTO: AP
“They’re on their way here and they should be in Silver City, New Mexico at around seven o’clock our time,” race director Jack Brennan said.
In a statement released by Astana, Armstrong said: “I’m excited to get back to competitive racing. The recovery training has been going well but nothing compares to getting back into the bunch and racing.”
Armstrong, who had a stainless steel plate and 12 screws inserted to stabilize his fractured right collarbone a month ago, was given the go-ahead to compete this week after USA Cycling reached an agreement with the UCI.
On Monday, the UCI had cited a rule that prevents top professional teams such as Astana from sending organized squads to national-level races.
The Tour of the Gila started yesterday and finishes on Sunday.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out