AUSTIN Is Lance Armstrong coming back to cycling? A report in a prominent cycling journal suggests that may be the case. And the seven-time Tour de France champion has put himself forward for drug testing - a necessary step for any return to the highest level of the sport he once dominated.

But any Armstrong comeback won`t take place with the Astana cycling team, as cycling journal VeloNews reported. Citing anonymous sources, its website said on Monday that the 36-year-old would compete with Astana in the 2009 Tour de France and four other road races - the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia and the Dauphine-Libere.

Team press officer Philippe Maertens denied that report on Tuesday.

`There are no contacts or plans of Team Astana to take Lance Armstrong,` he told The Associated Press. `As far as I know, Lance Armstrong doesn`t have plans to do road cycling.

`But that`s a question you have to ask Armstrong,` Maertens added. `We have no plans.`
Astana team director Johan Bruyneel, who was with Armstrong for all seven Tour wins from 1999-2005, told cyclingnews.com that he was unaware of any Armstrong comeback.

`I don`t know where the rumors come from,` the website quoted him as saying.

Maertens said rumors that Armstrong might come out of retirement had been circulating for a few weeks.

`If it would be true that Armstrong wants to come back it would be stupid for us to say no,` Maertens said, `but it`s not the case.`

Armstrong at least appears willing to submit to drug testing.

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

Pat McQuaid, the head of cycling`s governing body, told The AP that he learned that Armstrong is in the testing system in the United States.

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

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

`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, 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.