It may be back to his roots for former triathlete Lance Armstrong. His coach Chris Carmichael indicated that the seven-time Tour de France winner would race the Ironman Hawaii in 2011, thereby hinting at an end of Armstrong’s road career when the 2010 season wraps up.
Carmichael visited Kona, Hawaii, recently, and spoke about Armstrong’s plans. “2011 he’ll be here. He is super psyched. And you know, I think he wants to win more than just his age group,” Carmichael told everymantri.com.
Carmichael coached Peter Reid to the Ironman victory in the year 2000. But Carmichael never wished to actually race it himself. “Never. I am not an Ironman. I can’t run,” he said, smiling under the beaming sun on the Big Island.
Armstrong started out his career as a thriathlete and raced against the pros at age 16. But his road racing talents didn’t go unnoticed and he was soon invited to the junior national team. Armstrong turned professional in 1992. He finished dead last in his first race, the Clásica San Sebastián, but bounced back to an amazing second place in only his second pro race. That was the Meisterschaft von Zürich in 1992, where he was beaten only by Viatcheslav Ekimov, who would later become one of Armstrong’s most faithful domestiques.
That good pro start gave him the confidence to ride away from the likes of Miguel Indurain and Olaf Ludwig in the pouring rain of the 1993 World Championships, making him the youngest road World Champion ever, at age 21.
After Armstrong first retired in 2005, he showed he still has the running skills and finished the New York City marathon twice under three hours, on very little training. A clash with the triathlon specialists in October 2011 should be very interesting.