Rumours are growing that Lance Armstrong could race the Tour of Ireland in 2009.  The Texan 7 time Tour de France winner is pursueing his Livestrong campaign on the road next year and the Irish flagship Tour could fit into his plans.

The Tour of Ireland was revived in 2007 and has featured many of the top international pro-Tour teams such as CSC (now Saxo bank), Garmin-Chipotle and Columbia.  Top riders have appeared too such as the Schleck brothers and David Millar.  Every year the Tour of Ireland has gotten bigger and 2009 is set to be the biggest yet.  Ironically it is largely ignored at home but abroad it reaches many hundreds of thousands of viewers in countries all over the world and during primetime slots too.

‘We are seriously looking at the Tour of Ireland,’ Armstrong said at a press conference last week.  ‘Ironically enough I did that race in 1992, which makes me feel very old. The timing works out really well.  Ireland has been very progressive with regard to this issue of public health. I’d love to be back there, 17 years later.’

Something tells us Armstrong may have mixed Ireland up with Iceland or something like that with regard to cancer treatment?

We have managed to secure the audio from the Astana press conference last week featuring the teams top riders including Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer, Kloden and team manager Johan Bruyneel.  Click here to hear it in full.

By the way, apologies for the unexplained silence over the last few days as we have been moving servers.  Normal service will be returned shortly.