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There was a big article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about the feud between Greg Le Mond and Lance Armstrong.  It all started with critical comments made by LeMond in 2001 about Armstrong's association with controversial doctor Ferrari.  Armstrong called LeMond and apparently laid into him about it. 

LeMond has been suing Trek since they dropped his line of bicycles.  He thinks Armstrong is responsible.  Trek apparently says it's because they could not get LeMond to stop bad-mouthing Armstrong in the media.

At Interbike last year, during a press conference by Armstrong to announce his personal doping program run by Don Catlin of UCLA, LeMond showed up.  He questioned the testing procedures and offered his own methods.  Apparently they went back and forth for several minutes before Armstrong thanked him for coming and asked for the next question.

This comes at a time when the sport is suffering heavily from so many doping scandals, the loss of sponsors and money.

Armstrong and LeMond are supposed to go to mediation next week. 

Twenty five days before the start of the Tour de France on July 4, a joint announcement from the UCI, AFLD and ASO willl be made.  They will be announcing the names of the first riders to be convicted of doping based on their biological passport discrepancies.  The announcement will be made in Paris this coming Wednesday.  Pat McQuaid of the UCI said first the riders will be informed on Monday and then their teams and national federations.  Some will have disciplinary actions taken against them.

Stay tuned....

While awaiting Saturday's start of the Giro d'Italia, Lance Armstrong called Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to ask why there's no Tour of Colorado.  There's a Tour of California, Missouri, Indiana and there was the beloved Red Zinger/Coors Classic which ran until 1988.  The European stars of that time came to race in Colorado in August, following the Tour de France.  Lance is now a part-time resident here and Governor Ritter seemed very open to the idea.  We've got a gorgeous state.  Some areas that were never raced during the Coors Classic are Durango, Telluride, Cortez, Uncompaghre, Alamosa, Gunnison, Salida, La Veta Pass, Crested Butte, Steamboat Springs, Fruita and all points east.

ASO announced the names of the 20 teams selected for the 2009 Tour de France:

There will be 180 riders at the start line in Monaco on July 4.  These are the teams selected:

Allemagne
Team Milram (MRM)
 
Belgique
Quick Step (QST)
Silence - Lotto (SIL)
 
Danemark
Team Saxo Bank (SAX)
 
Espagne
Caisse d’Epargne (GCE)
Euskaltel - Euskadi (EUS)
 
Etats-Unis
Garmin - Slipstream (GRM)
Team Columbia – High Road (THR)
 
France
AG2R La Mondiale (ALM)
Agritubel (AGR)
BBox Bouygues Telecom (BTL)
Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne (COF)
Française des Jeux (FDJ)
 
Italie
Lampre – N.G.C. (LAM)
Liquigas (LIQ)
 
Kazakhstan
Astana (AST)
 
Pays-Bas
Rabobank (RAB)
Skil-Shimano (SKS)
 
Russie
Team Katusha (KAT)
 
Suisse
Cervélo Test Team (CTT)