Tour Down Under laments saga

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 23 Oktober 2012 | 14.23

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Shock ... Lance Armstrong rode the Tour Down Under, in South Australia, for three years. Source: Sarah Reed / News Limited

Lance Armstrong came to the Tour Down Under after a bending of the rules and left the Adelaide cycling race in a bizarre getaway moment.

But in between, it was an amazing success - for Armstrong, for his Livestrong charity, for the Tour, for the South Australian Government.

Armstrong started his three-year cycling comeback at the 2009 Tour and returned for the next two editions.

While he never cracked a big result at the race, that was never the point.

Armstrong's massive profile and his close alliance with the Tour took it to the next level.

He gave the Tour a quantum leap in spectators and international profile. Then-Premier Mike Rann associated himself closely with Armstrong.

The cyclist also used the Tour Down Under as a promotion platform for his Livestrong cancer charity.

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Livestrong is officially associated with a new cancer clinic at the Flinders Medical Centre, south of the Adelaide CBD.

The Livestrong logos remain at the centre, but pictures of Armstrong have apparently been removed.

Whatever the state government paid to Armstrong as an appearance fee - the speculation ranges from $1-2 million per race - it was an investment that paid off handsomely.

Of course, now that Armstrong is at the centre of the biggest doping scandal in sports history, no-one associated with the race is smiling about it anymore.

"I thought the benefits would be massive and they turned out to be bigger than my wildest expectations,'' race director Mike Turtur said.

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"But that was back then, when we weren't aware of all this other business.

"I feel it's a pretty severe kick in the guts ... it was welcomed with open arms, but we were deceived.''

Current premier Jay Weatherill said on Tuesday there was no way the government could recover any of the appearance fees.

Strictly speaking, Armstrong should not have been able to race at the 2009 Tour.

He had not given world governing body the UCI the required six-months official notice that he was returning to competition.

The UCI made an exception - a classic case of "it seemed like a good idea at the time''.

During Armstrong's final visit to the race last year, Sports Illustrated published a major feature on Armstrong that focussed on doping speculation.

Armstrong clearly became tired of interest in the article and his undoubted generosity to local journalists suddenly ended.

That led to the strange exit from his last Adelaide Tour.

After waving goodbye to fans at the post-race presentation, Armstrong was ushered past journalists to a waiting car at the back of the stage.

He was driven away, across the parklands, like Armstrong was escaping some sort of security threat. Just like that, Lance was gone - now, probably for good.


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