Surf Update and Lance Conjecture

There were good waves in Rodanthe yesterday. Richard called early in the morning to say he was headed down to Hatteras Island. I chose work for the day. He called around 4 p.m. as I was coming home on the Beach Road. He said it was worth the trip down there as he'd had a good 3-hour session. Said it was ledgie and head high with a lot of barrels to be had. Did I already say I chose work?

On Lance coming back I guess first of all, everybody thinks it's a natural that He would rejoin Johan Bruyneel and the Astana team. I thought the same until pondering the whole thing once again driving home from work today. I see Armstrong as extremely calculating about every move he makes. I've read about his scales and the weighing of all food portions he ate in the off-seasons while he was still harvesting Tours. I can't imagine him announcing his return to the world cycling stage without having already clenched a place to compete.

One of the team bosses who are quoted in Velo News today on Armstrong's return to pro road racing, is playing possum, and I believe already knows Armstrong will be joining his team.

I believe Bob Stapleton's Team Columbia is just as likely a place for Lance to land, maybe even more so, than Team Astana. There he could race once again with his long- time accomplice, George Hincapie. With Bruyneel's new book out this summer recounting how he had a very large part in Armstrong's Tour successes, I don't think anything could be more satisfying to Armstrong than to win a comeback tour "on his own" at 37 years-old without Bruyneel, but with Hincapie on an American team, with transparent proof of his having raced "clean". With these odds, Lance has found a new L'Alpe d'Huez summit finish, a new mountain to climb.

I see Armstrong creating turmoil inside an Astana team boasting two G.C. men in Contador and Liepheimer, whereas Team Columbia's Kim Kirchen, although a strong classics rider, is not the stellar G.C. contender that this team could put on the podium in Paris. Lance would more than fit the bill.

Maybe Bob Stapleton knows more than he would have us think.