The waiting is finally over. It seems like years ago that we broke the story that Lance Armstrong plans on returning to his first sport: Triathlon.
Check out the exclusive EMT video below taken after Lance raced the Leadville 100 mountain bike race in Leadville, Colorado.
Juan Pelota (a.k.a Lance Armstrong) tweeted tonight, "I'm thinking the first tri is here... 38°12′S 176°20′E"
A bit later he twitted, "Late January..."
So let's cut to the chase. That would be in the middle of summer in the Southern Hemisphere on the lovely North Island of New Zealand near the touristy town of Rotorua.
We think it could be the Blue Lake Multisport Festival, that includes a sprint triathlon and is held at the end of January. According to the a Kiwi travel web site that promotes the event:
"Four events, two days & one great location - a must do summer event at New Zealand’s best triathlon venue. The annual festival, on Auckland Anniversary weekend, attracts competitors from all around the North Island. In addition to an Aquathon and 2km lake swim, it also incorporates Rotorua’s only sprint triathlon. The swim leg of the triathlon can also be replaced with a kayak as a multisport option. Spread over two days, it allows competitors plenty of time to enjoy the stunning Rotorua lakes area between the races."
Indeed Kiwi pro triathlete Sam Warriner has already responded to Lance's (sorry Juan's) tweet by threatening to be the first to "chic" him.
She tweeted, "Let me know if you really are coming - I'd love to be the first to 'chic ya' in 2011! :)"
Keep in mind that Lance has already committed to racing the Tour Down Under in 2011 from January 16 to January 23rd, so he'll already be in Australia in January. New Zealand is a very reasonable four hour flight from Australia so it does seem to work with his current and publicly confirmed race schedule.
BTW: Juan Pelota is Lance Armstrong's twitter triathlon alter ego as we pondered in THIS recent post?
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