Here’s my photo of Lance Armstrong as he walked into the press conference this morning.

At his press conference this morning at the Interbike trade show, Lance Armstrong confirmed that he’ll race in the Tour of California next February in addition to the other races he’s previously mentioned.

When asked “Why Astana? Did you think about a Team Livestrong?” Armstrong answered that he has tremendous loyalty to Astana director Johan Bruyneel and the team bike sponsor, Trek.

Armstrong seemed to be setting himself up in case he doesn’t win the Tour de France when he joked that “20 minutes into Cross Vegas last night I changed my mind about the Tour de France.”

“I’m four years old and I’ve been off the bike four years,” Armstrong continued. “I consider Alberto Contador the best bike rider in the world,” signaling that he might be willing to be Contador’s domestique next year.

Eddie Merckx sat quietly in the front row at the press conference, while Greg LeMond was not quiet at all as LeMond expressed skepticism about even advanced doping controls.

Armstrong said he would race at least the next year. “There’s no contract, no salary, no bonus,” said Armstrong. “I’m not saying this will be in and out in a year, but we’l see how it goes.”

P.S. For real Lance Armstrong photos.

One of the big things at Interbike are electric bicycles. Several vendors have eBikes on display and there seems to be a lot of interest from retailers.

My question for you, my readers: Should I cover e-Bikes on Cyclelicious? Are these bicycles? Or are they small, underpowered motorcycles? What’s your opinion?

Traitor Cycles is a new bike builder up in the Seattle, Washington area. Kyle has a line of steel bikes including a road bike, a fixed gear bike, and a cyclocross bike. The clean, smooth lines and lug work caught my eye, as did the attractive paint jobs, but what especially got my interest was the Traitor Cycles head badge.

They just introduced their bikes at Interbike yesterday so they don’t have much information on their website yet, but look for more to come from them.

In other news, BSNYC’s commentary on Lance Armstrong’s New York press conference is the best I’ve seen.

I’ve started uploading my first set of Interbike 2008 photos. Sorry about the late posting — I had some technical difficulties with my laptop — but here are some brief highlights:

• I scored a free t-shirt from Fat Cyclist. He’s a genuinely nice guy — his online persona is a good reflection of what he’s like in real life.
• Surly has new colors for their bikes. I’ve posted some photos to Flickr for Kit’s benefit, who just bought last year’s model of the Long Haul Trucker last week.
  
• There are a lot of Europeans here selling their bike stuff here.
• The Momentum Magazine girls like to give hugs to their friends. I’m apparently one of their friends, although I continue to confuse Mia’s and Tania’s names.
• Dahon has a cool “Guess the number of folding bikes stuffed inside the Prius” contest.
• Rans — the folks from Hays, Kansas with their “semi recumbent” rides — introduced their semi recumbent longtrail cargo bike, the Rans Hammer Truck. The folks from Xtracycle totally geeked out over it. So did I. I’ll try to get a better photo tomorrow but here’s what I have.
  

• We have more booth babes here than last year.
  

More on Thursday. Post your photo and info requests here.