Pro bicyclist Lance Armstrong, born on September 18, 1971, as Lance Edward Gunderson. He is without a doubt one of the most astounding athletes ever born. At the age of twelve years old, he started out his career by winning in an adult competition. He seriously started off as a tri-athlete. He was ranked as number one in 1987 and 1988 in the Tri-Fred. He received a status of professional tri-athlete. Then in 1989 and 1990 he won the triathlon championship. He concluded the race at the 14th position in the 1992 Summer Olympics. At the World Road Race, he became the youngest rider to win the championship.
In 1999, Lance Armstrong went on to win the highest prestigious race, Tour de France and subsequently went on to earn it 7 years in a row, from 1999 to 2005 which in turn broke the former record set by Miguel Indurian, who won the race 5 times consecutively. In 1999 ABC television network named him the Wide World Sports Athlete of the Year. In 2002, he was titled the Wide World Sports Athlete by Sports Illustrated magazine. For 4 consecutive years, from 2002-2005 he was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. In 2003, the BBC, awarded him the Sports Personality award of the Year recognized as the Overseas Personality Award.
Lance Armstrong has backed his victories by proclaiming that he had trained for several months in Spain. He was able to win the Tour de France seven times consecutively because all his focus was solely on the Tour de France and he would not participate in any other competition, which provided him the chance to train for 180 days at a stretch. During that period former cyclist Chris Carmichael, who was also his coach, trained him.
Armstrong stated he was able to maintain higher peddle rotation in a lower gear in comparison with past champions who put to use a high gear and brute strength. High pedal rotation leads to a reduced amount of leg muscles fatigue when compared to lower cadence, which leads to extreme leg muscle contractions. He also had a increased aerobic threshold. His substantial pedaling cadence was attributed to his low lactate level, that has been his most unique quality.
Although Armstrongs team was not very strong to begin with in the Tour de France, the later wins he achieved, raised the team level. Armstrong is also a part of the US Postal Service bicycling team. But regrettably his US postal service team members were not a match to his caliber and often he was isolated. He strengthened this team by making sponsors and equipment suppliers communicate. He did this by obtaining bicycle parts which at that time, were being designed by different companies. Since they were separate companies, they never interacted with each other. Armstrong with able to get the sponsors and the bicycle part suppliers to work jointly so they could take complete benefit of all the resources available. Lance Armstrong developed such an impact that still today, there are many companies in the cycling circuit that have taken this method.
Lance Armstrong has saddly had more than his fair share of life's troubles. In 1996, He underwent brain and testicular surgery. Testicular cancer was detected in the third stage and the cancer had spread to his brain, lungs and his abdomen. His chances of survival were only at 3 percent. Attributed to the extremely low survival rate, he opted for a dangerous chemotherapy treatment so he could resume his career. His extremely courageous recovery and his astonishing success influenced him to lay the foundation for his charity, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, established in 1997. He went back to cycling after just 3 years and won, the first of seven, Tour de France titles by triumphing over Alex Zulle by seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
There are actually people over the years, who question his achievements and say that Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs to win in certain instances. Not one of these allegations could ever be verified. There has in no way been any evidence brought forth at all.
Did you know Lance Armstrong has even appeared in the movies? You could have seen him in the movie Dodgeball, or possibly in 2004 the movie called A True Underdog Story, or maybe You, Me and Dupree, made in 2006.
Lance Armstrong took his retirement at the closing of the 2005 Tour de France racing event, on July 24, 2005. After retiring, he has been concentrated on his charity foundation and has taken part in many marathons.
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