PRESS RELEASE

VERSUS ADDS TOUR DOWN UNDER, LANCE ARMSTRONG'S FIRST
POST-RETIREMENT RACE, TO 2009 CYCLING SCHEDULE

NEW YORK, N.Y. (December 17, 2008)-VERSUS, the network that celebrates real competition and the
television home of professional cycling in the U.S., today announced a deal for the exclusive U.S.
television rights to the 2009 Tour Down Under.  The event, which begins January 20, in South
Adelaide, Australia, will kick-off VERSUS' 2009 cycling coverage and is also scheduled to be Lance
Armstrong's first competitive cycling race since retiring in 2005.   
 

The men's DI cross country gets the competition started on a five-mile course on the Lees-McRae campus.
Photo courtesy Went Knipe

Banner Elk, N.C. (October 24, 2008) - The cross country competition kicked off the USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships on Friday as nearly 200 collegians raced through the campus of Lees-McRae College for the second year in a row. The first day of competition set the stage for an old-fashioned shootout between host Lees-McRae College and last year's overall team winner Fort Lewis College in Division I, while riders from nearby Brevard College and Appalachian State earned the Division II men's and women's crowns respectively.

The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) is offering to re-test Lance Armstrong's samples from the 1999 Tour de France so that he can prove once and for all that doping allegations published by French sports daily L'Equipe in August, 2005 are false.  AFLD president Pierre Bordry is volunteering to serve as an arbitrator between L'Equipe and Armstrong.  According to Bordry, Jacques de Ceaurriz, the director of the French national anti-doping lab (Laboratoire National de dépistage du dopage (LNDD)), which AFLD oversees, has reassured him that enough of the samples remain for re-testing purposes.  Bordry, who referred to Armstrong as "a great champion," is offering to have the samples re-tested at any WADA-accredited laboratory in Europe.  (source: L'Equipe)

Note:  The L'Equipe article was written by Damien Ressiot (L'Equipe's doping reporter behind the 2005 allegations) who referred to Don Catlin, the world-renowned anti-doping expert who will be closely monitoring Armstrong during his comeback, as "very controversial".  Ressiot failed to similarly qualify the LNDD, truly the world's most controversial anti-doping laboratory which has come under fire even within France.

(photo Copyright © Pete Geyer/cyclingfans.com)

Re-testing of blood samples for 10 riders (not 14 as originally reported) who competed in the 2008 Tour de France began on Monday.  Under the direction of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), anti-doping laboratories in Paris and Lausanne are testing for CERA, a form of EPO.  Testing is expected to last about two weeks but the results for three of the riders should be known this Friday or next Monday.  (source:  L'Equipe)

Media Advisory

Lance Armstrong confirmed this morning in a press conference at Interbike in Las Vegas that he will be competing at the 2009 Amgen Tour of California as a member of the Astana Cycling Team.

"We applaud the commitment that Lance Armstrong has made to return to cycling for the purpose of raising awareness for cancer. All of us at AEG, the Amgen Tour of California, and Breakaway from Cancer™ share his commitment to supporting those who are engaged in this important fight," said Andrew Messick, President, AEG Sports, owner and operator of the Amgen Tour of California.

Lance Armstrong is scheduled to hold a press conference at Interbike in Las Vegas tomorrow, Thursday, September 25, at 9am.  Armstrong will detail his plans for a return to competitive cycling in 2009.  We are on the lookout for ways to watch live streaming video of this event.

If you missed today's Lance Armstrong Press Conference or would like to see it again, it is now available for replay here.

We will post our analysis of what was said, what some of the rumors are, etc., tonight or tomorrow.