Tour de France boss hints at Armstrong return

PARIS, France (AP) -- Tour de France organizers are leaving the door open for Lance Armstrong to return to the showcase event, but say the seven-time champion will have to follow the same stringent testing procedures as any other cyclist.

Lance Armstrong rides down the Champs Elysees during the 2004 Tour de France race.

Armstrong announced Tuesday that he is ending a three-year retirement and aiming for another Tour. It is not yet clear which team he will join. He won seven Tours from 1999-2005.

Race director Christian Prudhomme told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Armstrong and his team will have to "follow all the rules today, that are much more strict than they were before."

Prudhomme says the Tour won't make any exceptions for Armstrong and his team.

Armstrong at least appears willing to submit to drug testing. Watch as Armstrong confirms comeback bid »

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confirmed Armstrong is part of its out-of-competition testing pool and would be eligible for elite competition on Feb. 1, 2009. The Amgen Tour of California begins Feb. 14.

Pat McQuaid, the leader of cycling's governing body, told the AP he learned a couple of weeks ago that Armstrong is part of USADA's out-of-competition testing pool. He's eligible for elite competition on Feb. 1, 2009.

"So, if he wants to come back to racing he's every right to come back. Good luck to him," said McQuaid, the International Cycling Union president.

McQuaid suggested Armstrong might be hoping to take advantage of new, more rigorous drug-testing procedures in cycling to answer skeptics who suspect the champion might have used drugs when he reigned cycling.

"It may be that he has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder because of the accusations and rumors surrounding him, none of which were ever proven," McQuaid said. "And he wants to come back and show that, now that there is a new system in place which is the biological passport which can show any type of manipulation of the blood, he wants to come back and show that he is the athlete he claims he was, that his results have shown."

Armstrong did not respond to text messages and voice mails left by the AP. His manager, Mark Higgins also did not respond to voice mails left by the AP.

Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer, has largely turned his competitive juices to running marathons since he retired from competitive cycling three years ago.

In August, he finished second in the Leadville Trail 100, a lung-searing 100-mile mountain bike race through the Colorado Rockies.