Lance Armstrong finished the Vuelta de Murcia on Sunday in 7th place behind winner Frantisek Rabon of HTC-Columbia; Armstrong's plans include adding another race to his Tour de France preparations.
Meanwhile, his Team RadioShack teammate Levi Leipheimer opened the Paris-Nice bike race with a third place finish in the prologue, 6 seconds behind Lars Boom of Rabobank. The race will roll across France through Sunday.
More action unfolds this week as the Tirreno-Adriatico rolls out Wednesday for seven days across Italy. Highlights will be streamed live on the Universal Sports website.
Vuelta de Murcia
Regarding his 7th place finish, Armstrong told reporters:
“Worried would be too strong of a word. I'm aware of (my performance), but not too stressed.”
He shouldn't be stressed. It's still early. He last participated in the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia across southern Spain in 2004, finishing way back in 23rd place. The 32-year-old still went on to win the Tour de France in July.
Of course, Armstrong may have wanted to do better in Saturday's individual time trial, in which he finished 8th overall, 1:18 behind Rabon. More importantly, he finished behind Tour de France contenders Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky and Denis Menchov of Rabobank.
RadioShack manager Johan Bruyneel says Armstrong might need more competition and could add a race after the one-day Milan-San Remo on March 20.
Armstrong, who has hired Allen Lim to direct his training, is next heading to South Africa to ride in the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour. The fund-raiser is touted as the world's largest timed cycling race and is popular with amateur as well as recreational cyclists. Armstrong will be promoting his LiveStrong foundation.
Paris-Nice
In Paris, Leipheimer should feel good about his 3rd place finish behind Boom in the 5-mile prologue that opened the Paris-Nice bike race.
The RadioShack cyclist finished 6 seconds behind boom and 3 seconds behind Jens Voigt of Saxo Bank. 2009 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was listed in 4th, with the same official time as Leipheimer.
Other contenders include Luis-Leon Sanchez of Caisse d'Epargne at 12 seconds behind and Christian VandeVelde of Garmin Transitions way back in 72nd place at 42 seconds behind.
Contador is shooting for an overall win at the Paris-Nice this week to set the stage for the Tour de France in July. First he'll have to contend with Team RadioShack, led by Leipheimer. Other RadioShack members in France are American Chris Horner and Jani Brajkovic, Geoffrey Lequatre, Tiago Machado, Yaroslav Popovych, Sebastien Rosseler and Gert Steegmans.
Paris-Nice TV coverage
Versus will show Paris-Nice action today (Sunday) beginning at 5 p.m. ET; coverage wraps up beginning at 4 p.m. (ET) next Sunday.
Tirreno-Adriatico TV and online coverage
Italy's Tirreno-Adriatico opens Wednesday. The Universal Sports website will offer streamed highlights, and Universal Sports network will offer same day coverage. The broadcast schedule is 3 to 5 p.m. (ET) Wednesday (March 10) through Tuesday (March 16). Online video streaming begins one-hour later.
Check CyclingNews for full results for Vuelta de Murcia and Paris Nice.
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