ADELAIDE, Australia  Under the midday sun on a country road, Janette Makowski, cancer survivor, waited for Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor, with a friend by her side and a white board in her hands.

On it, Makowski had written, “Lance would you like to come over for dinner to our house?”

As Armstrong’s comeback began in earnest Tuesday with the opening stage of the Tour Down Under, Australia continued to give him an unusually warm welcome. And Tuesday’s welcome actually turned out to be a little too warm for Armstrong’s taste, as temperatures during the 140-kilometer race peaked at just over 104 degrees.

“This is the day they said was going to be the easy day,” said Armstrong, who on his Twitter page also described the conditions as “hotter than doughnut grease.”

It was a day for persistence, not brilliance, and Armstrong complied. He and some of his Astana teammates stayed near the front of the chase pack for much of the stage before turning more conservative in the final five kilometers.