Submitted by John, Sep 25, 2008 00:53

I'm guessing that there were a couple of reasons for the change in Lance's tone. When he first had the idea, he probably did intend to go through his normal preparations for the Tour and give it his best shot. But once he and his team had a chance to start actually looking at potential races in new parts of the world, and wanting to do well in what's normally a training season, he decided to sacrifice the things he knew would make him successful and take some risks for the greater good. Normally January would be something like a team training camp in Solvang, not twenty days in Australia. I think the other reason is the big talk from Contador, and the talk of having earned a leadership role. I think that Lance is willing to earn that for himself as well, rather than taking over an existing team and telling everyone their new job is to help him win the Tour.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.