Cycling Great - Lance Armstrong
He won the most prestigious race, Tour de France, seven times consecutively, from 1999-2005. By this, he broke the previous record set by Miguel Indurian, who won the race five times consecutively. ABC titled him as the Wide World Sports Athlete of the Year in 1999. Sports Illustrated magazine honored him by naming him as the Sportsman of the year in 2002. For four consecutively years, from 2002-2005 he was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. BBC, in 2003, gave him the Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award.
He underwent brain and testicular surgery for getting treatment for testicular cancer, in 1996. The nonseminomatous testicular cancer was detected at the third stage and the cancer had spread to his brain, lungs and abdomen. His chances of living were only three percent and he opted for a dangerous chemotherapy so as to resume his career. His tremendous recovery and his success inspired him to lay the foundation of his charity, Lance Armstrong Foundation, in 1997. He went back to cycling after three years to win for the first time in Tour de France title by beating Alex Zulle by seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds. He was yet to win over Marco Pantani and Jan Ullrich who were big personalities in cycling and didn't attend due to some health issues.
Armstrong faced both of them in 2000, and Armstrong defeated both of them by six minutes and two seconds. He continued to do so in the next four consecutive years. Some people doubt his achievements and say that Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs to win in some cases. But none of them could be verified with good evidence.
He supported his victories by stating that he had trained for months together in Spain. He aimed only for the Tour de France and didn't participate in any other competition, which gave him the chance to train for one hundred and eighty days at a stretch. During that period former cyclist Chris Carmichael, who was also his coach, trained him.
Armstrong was able to retain higher cadence in a lower gear when compared to past champions who utilized a high gear and brute strength. High cadence leads to less leg muscles fatigue when compared to lower cadence, which leads to severe leg muscle contractions. He also had a high aerobic threshold. His high pedaling cadence was attributed to his low lactate level, which was his most unusual quality.
Although his team wasn't that strong initially in the Tour de France, his later victories brought up the team level. Armstrong is part of the US Postal Service cycling team. But his team member weren't a match to his caliber and often he was isolated. He strengthened the team by making sponsors and equipment suppliers to work in harmony. Instead of getting his bicycle parts being designed by different companies who hardly interact with each other, he made the sponsors and suppliers to work closely so as get complete advantage of all the resources. Many in the cycling circuit later adapted this approach.
Born as Lance Edward Gunderson, appeared in the movies Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, in 2004, and You, Me and Dupree, in 2006. Armstrong took his retirement at the closing of the 2005 Tour de France racing event, on July 24, 2005. After retirement he concentrated on his charity foundation and has taken part in many marathons.
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