A Year of Comebacks in the World of Cycling

The 2009 season sees the return of three big names in cycling, and one lesser known one. It also promises to be a season of new teams and new big names.

The biggest story of the year broke towards the end of last year's season—the return of Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong, three years after his seventh win on the Champs Elysees.

He is returning with the main goal of promoting his Cancer Foundation "Livestrong," and made his official comeback at the Tour Down Under last week, his presence alone causing the race to have more press coverage than ever, with everyone wanting to see if he was still good enough to mix it with today's peloton at the age of 37.

His final overall position of 29th, along with big moves on most stages, seemed to answer the questions. He will continue at the Tour of California in February, before moving on to his two big goals of the season—the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

At the Giro, he will line up with another man making his comeback to professional cycling, after a two-year hiatus. Ivan Basso was banned for two years in 2007 after admitting to considering doping, just before the Tour de France of that year. He took part in his first race with new team Liquigas at the end of last season, but has made this year's centenary edition of the Italian major tour his main goal for this year.

The other big-name comeback is that of Floyd Landis, who finally returns to the peloton after failing to clear his name after his "victory" at the 2006 Tour, later awarded to second-placed Oscar Pereiro, after a blood sample was found to contain excessive amounts of testosterone.

He will make his big return at the Tour of California, alongside former team-mate Armstrong, but riding for a domestic American outfit formed by Momentum Sports Group.

The other, although far lower-profile, comeback is that of Patrik Sinkewitz. The German rider tested positive for testosterone during the 2007 Tour, and proved to be the final straw for his team's sponsor T-Mobile, who pulled out of cycling shortly afterwards. He is returning to professional racing with the Czech Professional Continental division team PSK Whirlpool-Author, and will make his comeback in the Majorca Challenge this month.

Another partial comeback involves Alberto Contador returning to regain his Tour de France crown, which he won with the Discovery Chanel team in 2007. His new team Astana, despite being completely overhauled after the Vinokourov scandal during the Tour of that year, was banned from taking part in the 2008 edition.

However, Contador made the most of his opportunities by winning both the Giro and Vuelta a Espana, becoming only the fifth man in history to win all three of cycling's major tours. This year, however, he plans to focus solely on regaining his Tour crown from fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre.

So, 2009 has the makings of a very interesting season, with a number of faces returning to the peloton, and new teams Katusha and Cervelo starting out. It may take time for cycling to rid itself of its currently tarnished image, but actions are afoot, and positive progress has been made.

More riders are getting caught, which can only be good, as it will hopefully dissuade others of making bad mistakes, and the return of former disgraced riders could just help with this.

There are many opinions flying around as to whether the likes of Landis and Basso should be allowed to return at all, with many reckoning lifetime bans should be given to all that try to cheat the sport.

However, I personally believe these people can still contribute to the image of professional cycling, and the clean-up will work. There may well be more doping cases that come to light this year, with more riders given bans, but this will hopefully help the world's toughest sport to be cleaned up for good, and allow the honest, hard-working riders to gain all the success and accolades that they truly deserve.