Tour of the Gila turns into a monster race with Armstrong in peloton

April 29 update: Leipheimer wins Stage 1; Armstrong in top 10

A little ol' 5-day stage race based in Silver City, New Mexico, has suddenly taken on international significance with the arrival of Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner as competitors.

The trio literally found out on Tuesday afternoon that they were cleared to ride the 23rd edition of the Tour of the Gila bike race that runs Wednesday through Sunday in southern New Mexico.

Also in the peloton will be Floyd Landis and Rory Sutherland, riding for the OUCH team. Because Armstrong, Leipheimer and Horner compete for the ProTour level Astana team, they cannot compete as Astana members in the national-level race. The three will be wearing jerseys from Armstrong's Mellow Johnny's bike shop in Austin.

The details of UCI giving them permission to race weren't worked out until Tuesday afternoon. Read about how the deal came down at Cyclingnews.com and Daily Peloton.

Armstrong had been visiting family in Austin the past couple of days, and wrote on his Twitter website that he was flying to Aspen. Three hours later, he disclosed that he'd be heading to Silver City instead.

Armstrong has been training to recover from a serious fall and broken collarbone he suffered in Spain on March 23. He announced recently that he felt good enough to make his first-ever appearance at the Giro d'Italia on May 9-3. This Tour of Gila should be a good warm-up for the three-week race.

The Tour of Gila has been one of the big early-season races in the U.S., but fell into the background with the advent of the Tour of Georgia a few years ago. It's known for the tough terrain that races must ride in southern New Mexico.

Scrambling to find a sponsor or face further curtailment, the race landed component-maker SRAM as the title sponsor for 2009. (SRAM also is the equipment sponsor of Astana and Armstrong's Trek-Livestrong U-23 cycling team.)

Among the teams who will be competing are Bissell, BMC, Colavita, Kelly Benefit, Rock Racing and Team Type 1, among others.

Wednesday's Stage 1 is the Silver City to Mogollon Road Race, which covers 93 miles for the men and 61 for the females women.