Lance Armstrong (born September 18, 1971) is an American cyclist from Austin, Texas. He is most famous for recovering from cancer to subsequently win the Tour de France a record six consecutive times -- 1999 to 2004. His success prompted some to nickname the event Tour de Lance.
Armstrong's achievements have been widely lauded. In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him their Sportsman of the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for both 2002 and 2003, received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete in 2003 and 2004, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003.
Armstrong has been subject to allegations concerning the use of performance-enhancing drugs; he has never failed a test for banned drugs, and denies that he used them at any time.
History
Early history
Armstrong was born in Plano, Texas and was raised by his mother, Linda, whose spirit and independence has often been cited by Armstrong as his greatest influence. Armstrong received his surname at the age of three, when his mother married Terry Armstrong. Armstrong began his sporting career as a triathlete, competing in seniors' competitions from the age of 16. It soon became clear that his greatest talent lay in the cycling leg of the event.
After competing as a cycling amateur, winning the US amateur championship in 1991 and finishing 14th in the 1992 Olympics road race, Armstrong turned professional in 1992. The following year he scored his first major victory as he rode solo to win the World Road Championships in Oslo, Norway.
His successes continued with Team Motorola, with whom he won a stage in the 1995 Tour de France and several classic one-day events. In that same year, he won the premier U.S. cycling event, the Tour DuPont, having placed second in 1994. He won the Tour DuPont again in 1996, and was ranked number 1 cyclist in the world. Later in 1996, however, he abandoned the Tour de France and had a disappointing Olympic Games.
Cancer
In October of 1996 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had metastasized, spreading to his lungs and brain. His doctors told him that he had a fifty-percent chance of survival. After his recovery, one of his doctors told him that his actual odds of survival were considerably smaller, and that he had been given the 50 percent estimate primarily to give him hope. Armstrong managed to recover after invasive surgery to remove brain lesions, and a severe course of chemotherapy, performed at Indiana University School of Medicine. The standard chemotherapy for his cancer would have meant the end of his cycling career, because a known side effect was a dramatic reduction in lung function; he opted for a more severe treatment that was less likely to result in lung damage. While in remission he resumed training, but found himself unceremoniously, if unsurprisingly, dropped by his Cofidis team. He was eventually signed by the newly formed US Postal Service team, and by 1998, he was able to make his successful return in the cycling world.
Tour de France
Lance's true comeback came in 1999, when he won his first Tour de France. Armstrong has proved all but invincible since then, due to his unique abilities as both time triallist and mountain climber. His final lead times over his closest competitor have been over six minutes every year except for 2003, when he finished 1:01 ahead of Jan Ullrich, following an unusual set of circumstances including a stomach illness at the outset of the race.
In his most recent Tour victory (2004), Armstrong roared back in tip-top shape to win a personal-best 5 stages, plus the team time trial (TTT) with his U.S. Postal Service "Blue Train". He let his friend Ivan Basso win Stage 12 by choosing not to contend at the finish line as his way of offering support for Basso's mother's struggle with cancer. After that he seized the reins by outsprinting Basso to take the very next stage, and followed that up by becoming the first man since Gino Bartali in 1948 to win three consecutive mountain stages -- 15, 16, and 17. For the first time Armstrong also found himself unable to ride away from his rivals in the mountains (except for the individual time trial in stage 16 up L'Alpe d'Huez when he started two minutes behind Basso and passed him up) and won in sprint finishes in stages 13 and 15 versus Basso and most excitingly made up a huge gap in the last 250 meters to nip Andreas Klöden at the line in stage 17. He won the final individual time trial (ITT), stage 19, to complete his personal-record haul of stage wins.
Family and hobbies
Armstrong and his wife Kristin had a son shortly after his amazing comeback victory, and twin girls two years later, all by in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Armstrong and his wife divorced in 2003. As of September 2004, Armstrong had been in a relationship with singer Sheryl Crow for about a year (source: Tonight Show appearance September 1).
For relaxation, Armstrong also enjoys mountain biking and trout fishing, and casual rides on his bike.
Reasons for success
Lance has triumphed partly because he has made a career of the Tour de France, training in Spain for the year leading up to the Tour, and making frequent trips to France to fully analyze and ride key parts of the upcoming Tour course. For example, during his preparation for the 2004 Tour, he rode virtually every stage at least once, and rode the Alpe d'Huez climb, site of a key time trial, multiple times in the course of five days.
His riding style is also distinctive. Pedalling very quickly, often in a lower gear than his competitors, he can reach a cadence of 120 cycles per minute on flats, and is able to rapidly accelerate away from his main rivals who tend to use higher gears but pedal more slowly while riding uphill. As an example Induráin, who would power a huge gear at a low cadence. Armstrong can maintain incredible speeds even when going up the most daunting climbs of the Tour and at times even specialist climbers are unable to keep pace with him on a consistent basis. The ability to maintain this high cadence for such long distances is based on his extremely high lactic acid threshold, allowing him to work at a high intensity without building up lactic acid levels that force lesser athletes to back off. Much of his training is based on raising this level, and in learning exactly where the limit is.
Unlike most gifted climbers, however, Armstrong is also exceptional in the individual time trial, and is as good as, if not better than, those physically more suited to the discipline, such as rival Jan Ullrich. Also, unlike many of the past tour winners, Armstrong is very aggressive during the mountainous stages, preferring to take the lead and attack spectacularly. Although these attacks usually come towards the end of stages, he is capable of opening immense leads over his rivals and leaving the rest of the field scattered behind him down the mountainside.
Some have attributed Armstrong's success in recent years in part to his US Postal Service cycling team. While the U.S. Postal Team competes in races worldwide, the riders selected to join Armstrong in the Tour de France are there specifically to help Armstrong win the Yellow Jersey.
Allegations of drug use
Like many top international sports men and women, Armstrong has long been dogged by allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. However, despite being subjected to dozens of drug tests, he has never proved positive to any illicit substance. Specifically, his hematocrit rate was never found to exceed the threshold above which it is sure that the racer used the drug EPO, which was once rife throughout cycling (though Armstrong did take EPO for one of its approved medical uses, to help his recovery during cancer treatment. There is no suggestion that this was an unfair advantage for his subsequent cycling achievements). When training, Lance boosts his red blood cell count through cycling at altitude and sleeping in an altitude tent.
In 1999 he tested positive for a corticoid, and although he did not declare taking the medication on the form before the test, the UCI accepted it was in his system due to his use of a legal skin cream to treat road rash and saddle sores. Particularly vocal have been Greg LeMond, the only other American to have won the Tour, and the French newspaper Le Monde, who have questioned his association with his trainer, Dr. Michele Ferrari, who is presently on trial for providing drugs to Italian cyclists. Armstrong has strenuously and repeatedly denied the allegations. Another racer, Italian Filippo Simeoni, implicated Armstrong when confessing to the use of illegal drugs prescribed by Dr. Ferrari. Armstrong called him a liar, and a legal process started between the two. Near the end of the 2004 tour, Armstrong personally chased down a breakaway of riders which included Simeoni who was not a threat to the general classification, then relaxed and merged back into the following peloton. According to TV commentators, Armstrong, who passed several drug tests during the tour, was demonstrating that he did not need drugs to be a superior rider to Simeoni. Armstrong's action was criticized in most Italian media coverage and by the official Italian Cyclist Federation.
None of his accusers have produced evidence to substantiate the rumors. In 2004, circumstantial evidence was published in the book L.A. Confidentiel : Les secrets de Lance Armstrong (ISBN 2846751307) which was released less than three weeks before the Tour de France. It was written by David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, who readily admitted that "There's no smoking gun. It's all circumstantial evidence." Walsh is a sportswriter with the London Sunday Times and Ballester a former sportswriter for l'Équipe in France. Armstrong's solicitors issued proceedings in the High Court in London against the Sunday Times and David Walsh, seeking substantial damages, and in Paris against Walsh, Ballester, the publishers of LA Confidential and the publishers of l’Express which printed excerpts from the book.
The controversy surrounding Lance Armstrong's performances has been described by some in the United States media as unwarranted jealousy from the French, despite some Americans being among his critics.
The Future
Immediately after winning his record sixth Tour de France, rumors began swirling about Armstrong's future. While he insists he has no plans to retire, some speculate that he would like to spend more time with his family, as well as girlfriend Sheryl Crow. These rumors only intensified after Armstrong remarked to a French reporter that he was no longer "a slave" to the Tour de France. Most observers, however, seem to believe that he still has a lot more to give the cycling world, though Washington Post reporter and Armstrong biographer Sally Jenkins asserted in her July 26, 2004 column that "Armstrong, 32, will probably never better this performance," referring to his sixth Tour victory.
In the same column, Jenkins also reports that Armstrong told her that "he'd like to compete in the Giro d'Italia and Tour of Spain and other classic races" in the coming years.
In September 2004 television interviews on Charlie Rose, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Best Damn Sports Show Period, Armstrong has said that he will participate in one more Tour de France, either in 2005 or 2006. If he participates in other Tours, Classics or Hour Record, they will be in 2005 and the next Tour de France in 2006. Otherwise, he will ride the Tour de France in 2005 for his final time.
i want to fuck lance armstrong up the ass all day long
Teams and victories
Teams
- 1992-1996: Motorola
- 1997: Cofidis
- 1998-2002: US Postal Service
- 2003-2004: US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor
Victories
1992
- First Union Grand Prix
- GP Sanson
- Longsjo Classic
- Thrift Drug Classic
- Tour de Ribera
1993
- Thrift Drug Classic
- Trofeo Laigueglia
- 8th stage of the Tour de France
- USPro Championship
- West Virginia Classic
- World Championships
1994
- Thrift Drug Classic
1995
- Clasica San Sebastian
- 18th stage of the Tour de France
- Tour du Pont
- West Virginia Classic
1996
- Tour of The Netherlands
- Tour du Pont
- Flèche Wallone
1998
- Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
- Tour de Luxembourg
1999
- Tour de France (4 stage victories)
2000
- GP des Nations
- GP Eddy Merckx
- Tour de France (1 stage victory)
2001
- Tour de France (4 stage victories)
- Tour de Suisse
2002
- Criterium du Dauphiné Libére
- GP du Midi-Libre
- Tour de France (4 stage victories)
2003
- Criterium du Dauphiné Libére
- Tour de France (1 stage victory)
2004
- Tour de France (6 stage victories)
- Tour de Georgia
Further reading
- Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins: It's Not About The Bike. My Journey Back to Life (ISBN 0425179613), Putnam 2000. Armstrong's own account of his battle with cancer and subsequent triumphant return to bike racing.
- Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins: Every Second Counts (ISBN 0385508719), Broadway Books 2003. Armstrong's account of his life after his first four Tour triumph.