PARIS (AP):

NOT EVEN the Tour de France's director can predict whether Lance Armstrong still has what it takes to win. But this much he's sure of: Everyone is buzzing about the seven-time champion's surprise return to cycling.

A day after Armstrong confirmed that his comeback would be with the Astana squad, Christian Prudhomme cleared up any doubts over whether the Texan and his new team will be allowed to race next year. The Tour barred Astana last year, when Armstrong was still in retirement, because of doping problems in its past.

The Tour director said Astana should be allowed to race in 2009 as long as it avoids doping problems before cycling's showpiece event starts on July 4 in the Mediterranean principality of Monaco.

No scandals

"At this point, I'm not aware of proven doping cases, of scandals, in the team. So, logically, they should take the start at our races next year," Prudhomme told The Associated Press yesterday.

Among other races organised by ASO, which runs the Tour, are the Paris-Nice stage race and one-day classics including the Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris-Roubaix.

Prudhomme said he isn't sure whether Armstrong, 37, can get back to top form after three years away from the sport or how next year's Tour will play out with the Texan - so dominant from 1999-2005 - back in the cycling pack.

But he cited great public interest in the cancer survivor's comeback, even in remoter regions of France, a country where Armstrong's American ways and race dominance stirred mixed emotions.

Prudhomme said he spent Wednesday at a race in the west of France, the Tour of Poitou-Charentes, and that "practically the whole day, people spoke to me about the return of Lance Armstrong".

"One cannot say that his comeback is good or bad news. But it really is news ... It's making noise everywhere," he said. "The fact that he is a star ... means that this touches everyone. Whether people agree with it or not, they have an opinion and, generally, a strong opinion."