Sydney  - Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said Monday he would make an unlikely victor in next week's comeback ride in Australia's Tour Down Under.

"I think it would be unrealistic to expect a victory," the 37-year-old Texan told reporters in Adelaide following a four-hour training stint.

The world's best-known cancer survivor said it could even be possible for him to be the first rider dropped from the peloton in his much-heralded return to professional cycle racing.

"I hope to be in the mix. I could be completely wrong - I might be the first guy dropped."

He admitted to the qualms other mortals would have at returning from a three-year lay-off.

"I've a little bit of insecurity and a little bit of nervousness there, and so that's the reason I've tried to train hard and prepare hard."

Armstrong arrived in Adelaide to a rock star welcome separately from his Astana team-mates. He is out to demonstrate at the first ProTour event of the season that he's worthy of a place in the high-powered Astana team for July's Tour de France.

Armstrong said his training had gone well since ending his retirement in September and that he was fitter now than at the start of earlier seasons.

He's hoping a good showing in Adelaide will presage a first-ever start in the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia in May but conceded there was more to success in racing than just stamina.

"It's not just about your physical condition," he told a packed press conference in Adelaide, "it's about 200 guys going down the road and going around dangerous corners at 40-50 miles per hour - and how does that feel? That's a dynamic that you can't simulate in training, so I've got to get in the group."

The man many consider the best-ever cyclist has consistently been keen to tame expectations of a miraculous second-coming. "I don't want to get clobbered too bad - that's my main motivation for training hard," he said. (dpa)