Lance Armstrong, and Alberto Contador’s team Astana will be one of the 16 teams competing in the Tour of California in 2009. Team Columbia, with George Hincapie and sprinter Mark Cavendish will also be competing, which could make things pretty interesting.  The stage race takes place on Feb. 14, and will be televised on the Versus channel.

The other eight teams that have been announced so far are Ag2r-La Mondiale (FRA), Garmin-Slipstream (USA), Liquigas (ITA), Quick Step (BEL), Rabobank (Netherlands), Team Columbia (USA), and Team Saxo Bank (DEN).

I have a feeling Contador, and Armstrong will treat it more as training rather than to actually compete, but who knows.  There are some pretty good teams in the race, so things could get pretty heated in some of the stages.

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