Last ride for the comeback man

Yet,this Sunday saw Armstrong shuffled off to the background at the Tour de France,standing quietly off to one side as the yellow jersey he wore seven years in a row was stretched across the slim shoulders of 27-year-old Spaniard Alberto Contador.

Seeing his one-time team mate and rival atop the podium for the second straight year,and third in the last four,certainly hurt. Armstrong finished third to Contador in 2009,in his first comeback ride after a layoff that stretched back to 2005.

This time around,he was plagued by cobblestones and flat tyres,caught up in crashes and no longer a factor even before the midway point of the race. He eventually faded to 23rd,almost 40 minutes behind the winner.

The consolation,noble as it seemed to the rest of us looking on,is that Armstrong,scraped up and sore as any 38-year-old could ever be,didnt quit. But being an also-ran was never good enough for Armstrong before.

And the sting of this defeat could linger even longer because of a federal investigation launched earlier this year following accusations of doping by Floyd Landis,another former team mate,that one or more of Armstrongs seven tour titles were achieved by doping. In 10 years,when I look back on the 2010 Tour,it wont be the memory that I have, Armstrong said,before the final stage run-in to Paris.

Obviously,I wont have a yellow jersey to remember 8211; Ill remember the team,digging deep to win the team. Ill remember the bad luck,certainly,the crashes. But that, Armstrong added,referring to Landis allegations against him and others,wont be the thing that Ill take away.

Armstrong has never shied away from attention. Hes perhaps the most frequently tested athlete on the planet and has never come back positive. But he learned early on that that wouldnt be enough to keep suspicion at bay. Late in the first of his seven straight wins,in 1999,Armstrong was found to be using a corticosteroid in a cream for saddle sores,he maintained and for which he produced a prescription. But Armstrong,as he has every time since,couldnt resist the chance to fire back.

They say stress causes cancer. So if you want to avoid cancer,dont come to the Tour de France and wear the yellow jersey, he said at the time. Its too much stress. He never let his guard down after that.

Whether as plaintiff or defendant,Armstrong has won every court case hes fought since,and pushed back hard against attempts to nail him by French anti-doping authorities,several damaging books and even questions about some of his associates 8211; notably Italian doctor Michele Ferrari,whom he quietly dropped soon after.

As a result of his refusal to back down,Armstrong won the benefit of the doubt and nearly every case hes contested in the court of public opinion,too. It didnt hurt,of course,that Armstrong proved to be as tireless and relentless a crusader for cancer research as he was a rider.

Yet the ongoing investigation,trumpeted across headlines even as he struggled to stay in the race,have put both that record and his legacy in jeopardy. Even Armstrong acknowledged as much.

Legacies wont ever be written the same now,like they were before in this era of 24215;7 news and media,and blogs and speculation and the constant need for attention from the media, he said. But Armstrong was certain about this much: If Frank Sinatra lived today,hed have a much more difficult time being Frank Sinatra.

Whether that applies to being Armstrong,only time will tell. But he was already a world-class triathlete at 15,even before cancer and arguably the toughest training regimen ever transformed him into something as close to a machine as humanly possible. During his run,Armstrong also boasted the most money,best team,support staff and state-of-the-art equipment.

It was a very traditional sport,very old school,almost relaxed, he recalled. We just wiped it all clean and said,Were going to analyse every little thing,if its the composition of a team,if its a diet,if its radios,whatever it is,we sort of led the push there.

Yet,when Armstrong walked away the first time,in 2005,he was determined not to let even those accomplishments and the controversies that blew up in the wake of all that winning to define him. Hes just as determined now. There are several camps here: theres one of he didnt do anything; theres one where he did everything; and theres another camp that,he may have done something. Thats totally fine,I have no problem with that. I gave up fighting that a long time ago, Armstrong said. Its not going to stop me from running my foundation. It wont stop me from being a good father to my kids. It wont stop me from doing whatever I want to do with my life.