Lance Armstrong Biography
Lance Armstrong was one of the domineering personalities in professional cycling, winning the Tour de France for a record breaking seven consecutive occasions between 1999 and 2006. His story is all the more remarkable for his well documented recovery from a life threatening cancer. After retiring from the sport, Lance Armstrong returned to the pro peleton to ride the Tour for two more occasions in 2009 and 2010, before finally retiring.
Lance Armstrong was born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971, in Texas US, his father was not involved in his bringing up, and became close to his mother. From an early age, Lance displayed great talent as an athlete and showed a strong will and determination training for many hours. As a teenager, he was most interested in the triathlon, but, after a while decided to concentrate on cycling and so moved to Europe to join the pro cycling circuit. From 1992 -1996, he rode for the US based Motorola Team
Although he was following in the footsteps of Greg Lemond, Lance was still representing a small number of American cyclists breaking into a European dominated sport. Lance soon showed signs of being a great potential one day racer. His greatest moment came in 1993 when he won the World Championships in a rain soaked Norway, aged only 21. He seemed to have a great potential career ahead of him. But, in 1996, he saw an unexpected and dramatic drop off in his form. This drop in form, forced him to retire and he later discovered (October 1996) that he had an advanced form of testicular cancer, which doctors gave him only a 40% chance of survival.
Lance wrote about this experience in his book - Not About the Bike. It was a testing time, where he underwent difficult treatments. But, against the odds, Lance made a full recovery and survived. On recovering from the cancer, Lance returned to thoughts of making it as a pro cyclist. Few teams were interested in an ex cancer survivor, thinking his career terminally finished. However, he was given a chance by US Postals. His first races proved difficult as he struggled to be competitive. However, he persevered and at the end of 1998, he managed to come 4th in the Vuelta Espana. By 1999 he was entering the Tour de France as leader of his team. No one really considered him as a possibility for overall victory - despite the fact he had lost weight from the illness and was now better suited to mountain climbing. However, against the odds, Lance won the world's most famous and most difficult bike race. It was one of the greatest sporting stories.
As well as winning the Tour de France, Lance's popularity and fame far extended from the sport of cycling. He actively campaigned for greater awareness of cancer and started his own foundation to raise funds for Cancer. His books which recounted his recovery from illness became a best seller. It gave many Americans a new interest in cycling.
Over the next seven years, Lance Armstrong went on to dominate the Tour de France, winning each Tour between 1999-2005. His preparation was characterised by great attention to detail, from riding over future stages, to weighing his pasta to ensure his optimal racing weight. This scientific approach and attention to detail contrasted with one of his main competitors of the era - Jan Ulrich. Compared to Lance, Jan seemed to rely on his natural talent and would sometimes start the season way above his racing weight.
The period of the early 2000s was also an era of frequent doping scandals and doping revelations. Over this period many team mates and fellow competitors were implicated in taking doping products.
Lance Armstrong was criticised for his close relationship with controversial doctor Michel Ferrari (of Italy). Many felt he was implicated in helping riders take doping products. He was later convicted of 'sporting fraud' by a court in Italy, after testimonials from former clients such as , , who testified against Ferrari. The relationship between Armstrong and Ferrari was one reason why Greg Lemond spoke out against Lance Armstrong and questioned the nature of this victory.
During this time, Lance Armstrong never failed a dope test. Though there was a technical dope failure in 2000 for the drug . The French newspaper L'Équipe on August 23, 2005, , also claimed that Lance Armstrong failed a retrospective test for EPO from 1999. However, the test was ruled as inadmissible for unscientific methods of testing.
After his seventh consecutive victory in 2007, Lance Armstrong retired and spent more time raising money and awareness for his cancer charities.
In 2009, Lance Armstrong made a surprise return to the peleton. Despite a short period of training, he was able to finish on the podium in the Tour de France, behind winner Alberto Contador. However, his last tour in 2010, proved less successful. After a raft of crashes, Lance was unable to keep up with the leaders and finished well down in 23rd place. However, Lance said the main reason for returning to the Tour was to raise awareness for Cancer and the Live Strong foundation.
The 2010 Tour was increasingly overshadowed by questions over doping. After denying doping for two years, former teammate Floyd Landis changed his mind, admitted to doping and also implicated Lance Armstrong. Landis' reliability as a witness is undermined due to his repeated denials for so long. But, even so, his report, led to a federal investigation, similar to the investigation into the e BALCO scandal involving Tim Montgomery, Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones. On June 9, 2010, The New York Daily News reported that assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Miller was the leader of a federal investigation into Landis's claims.
Lance Armstrong Attacks on Mt Ventoux