FanHouse Lance Armstrong

BRIGNOLES, France (AP) -- Lance Armstrong just wanted to stay out of trouble on a scorching day one rider felt was better suited for baking bread.

British sprinter Mark Cavendish won the second stage of the Tour de France on Sunday, with Armstrong finishing safely in the pack and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland keeping the leader's yellow jersey. Cancellara captured the opening time trial a day earlier.

MONACO (AP) -- Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong went out early and put up a solid time in the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, then was upstaged by Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland.

Cancellara finished the 9.6-mile time trial in 19 minutes, 32 seconds, beating 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador by 18 seconds to capture the yellow jersey.

In a video on his web site, Lance Armstrong says he thinks it's likely he'll be prevented from riding in this summer's Tour de France because of a dispute with French officials over drug-testing procedures. The video is below.

If you thought the broken collarbone suffered by Lance Armstrong at the Tour de Castilla y Leon in Spain on Monday was going to keep him out of the 2009 Tour de France, you would apparently be incorrect.

The seven-time winner of the premier cycling event will compete in France and possibly in the Giro d'Italia, according to the Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel.

"I don't think this changes anything for the Tour de France," Bruyneel said Tuesday. "A broken collarbone in the month of March does not at all compromise the start of the Tour de France or your performance in the Tour de France."

Lance Armstrong returned to the cycling world yet again this year. The cycling legend intended to compete in the Tour de France and bring yet another title to America. However, his progress hit a major speed bump Monday when he broke his collarbone in a crash during the first stage of the Tour de Castilla y Leon in Spain. Video below (FYI: foreign announcers ahead.)



Via FanIQ

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong is getting back on a bike after taking three years off. In this exclusive FanHouse video we hear from Lance, his fans, and Lance's close friend, actor Ben Stiller, who says that going to lunch with the sports icon is not as cool as people might think. We also find out how those yellow wrist bands we are all so familiar with came into being, and what Armstrong really thought about them at first.

Check out the video after the jump.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong is getting back on a bike after taking three years off. In this exclusive FanHouse video we hear from Lance, his fans, and Lance's close friend, actor Ben Stiller, who says that going to lunch with the sports icon is not as cool as people might think. We also find out how those yellow wrist bands we are all so familiar with came into being, and what Armstrong really thought about them at first.

Check out the video after the jump.

Lance Armstrong may be racing in the Amgen Tour of California, but he kicked off his morning like many of us: drinking some coffee, checking some email and watching ESPN in the background. How do I know this? Because the guy's on Twitter and he told me so.

Unfortunately, the quiet calm of his Sunday morning was soon interrupted: "Whoa!! They just came to my room and said our truck was broken into and someone stole my time trial bike! Wtf?!? APB out to the twitterati."

In the wake of the Alex Rodriguez admission to steroid use, you'd think athletes are doing whatever they can to keep their name and steroids as far apart as possible, especially if they've been questioned in the past.

Not the case for seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who, after announcing his comeback to cycling, claimed that he would be undergoing some comprehensive testing by Don Catlin, basically the Tiger Woods of anti-doping scientists. The tests were to be extremely strict and available for everyone on the Internet, but have since been canceled without Catlin ever getting a chance to test Armstrong even once.

Michael Jordan came back to the Bulls after baseball and was an absolute hero. He led Chicago to three championships and went from Hall-of-Famer to Best Player Ever.

Jordan also came back one too many times when he joined the Wizards. It was ugly. He wasn't the same guy, and the lasting image was him front-rimming a dunk he couldn't put down in the All-Star game. Yikes.

Hopefully Lance Armstrong will be different, despite returning to professional cycling to win his eighth Tour de France this summer. His first competition? Australia. His performance after Day One? Down under (Get it?).