Kelly: injury won’t wreck Armstrong’s Tour de France dream

SEAN KELLY predicted yesterday that Lance Armstrong will be back in plenty of time for his bid to extend his Tour de France victories come high summer and Tour of Ireland Project Director, Darach McQuaid, said the mishap will not affect Armstrong’s participation in the Irish showpiece in August.

Armstrong’s crash in stage one of the Castilla y Leon stage race in Spain resulted in a clean collarbone fracture, meaning his recovery should be quick.

And his Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel predicted he would be back in time to bid for his eighth Tour de France title in July, and may even compete in the Giro d’Italia in May.

“A broken collarbone in March does not change anything as regards the Tour de France,” said Bruyneel.

“For the moment, we are sticking largely with the same schedule. He was going to be leaving for the US after this race and then come back for the Giro, so for the moment nothing has changed,” he added.

“Personally, I think it is still possible to take part in the Giro,” which starts on May 9.”

Bruyneel’s comments were echoed by Irish legend Kelly, who broke his collarbone three times during an illustrious career.

The teak-tough Carrick-on-Suir man said yesterday that getting back on the bike quickly is very normal with this injury.

“I would be very surprised if Lance is not back on his indoor trainer by the weekend,” he said. “In fact I would safely say he will be riding the Giro d’Italia, which is such a critical race in his build-up to the Tour de France.

“I know he is probably not going to be as competitive in the Giro as he would have been if he had not broken his collarbone. After being off the bike for two and a half years he probably feels he needs to be competitive in that race.

“But this could be a good thing going into the Tour de France. He will have to approach the race differently and maybe he won’t expend as much energy as he would if he was fully fit. He will be that bit fresher.

“Broken collarbones are a common problems for cyclists. I broke mine three times but I always found that I was back on the bike again after two or three weeks. I would assume it will be the same with Lance.”