Lance Armstrong (born September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas) is a retired
American professional road racing cyclist. He is most famous for
recovering from testicular cancer to subsequently win the Tour
de France a record seven consecutive times—1999 to 2005.
His success prompted some to nickname the event the "Tour
de Lance."
In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him their Sportsman of
the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year
for 2002, 2003 and 2004, received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete
in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the
Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003. Armstrong retired from racing
at the end of the 2005 Tour de France.
Career
Early career
He began his sporting career as a triathlete, competing in adult competitions
from the age of 16.5. It soon became clear that his greatest talent
was as a bicycle racer. At 17, he received an invitation to train with
the Junior National Cycling Team. Plano Independent School District's
school board said that the six-week leave to train taken during the
second semester of his senior year would bar him from graduating. Armstrong
withdrew from his high school, Plano East Senior High, with his mother's
blessing and went to train with the team. He graduated from another
high school in Dallas the following spring and still harbors resentment
toward Plano because of this and prefers his adopted home of Austin,
Texas.
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 victory was so dominant (he had time to blow kisses to his mother in the home straight) that he was invited to an audience with the King of Norway, which he initially turned down after finding his mother was not included in the invitation. Minutes later, the King invited both.
His successes continued with Team Motorola, with whom he won stages
in the 1993 and 1995 Tours de France and several classic one-day events.
Also in 1995, 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 one cyclist in the world. Later in 1996, however,
he abandoned the Tour de France and had a disappointing Olympic Games.
These early disappointments spurred him on to the great things he has
achieved post-cancer, and he admits that if had he given in on the
devilishly difficult Clasica San Sebastian he could have retired from
the sport.
Cancer
On October 2, 1996, Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer
that had metastasized, spreading to his lungs and brain. His doctors
told him that about a 50 percent chance of survival. After his recovery,
one of his doctors told him that his actual odds of survival had been
considerably smaller (one even went as far as to say three percent),
and that he had been given the estimate primarily to give him hope.
The date of October 2 was eventually commemorated by Armstrong and
Nike, through the "10 // 2" line of merchandise. One dollar
from the sale of each piece of "10//2" merchandise is donated
to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which was founded in 1997. Armstrong
managed to recover after surgery to remove his right testicle and two
brain lesions, and a 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 his contract had been canceled by his Cofidis
team. He was eventually signed by the newly formed United States Postal
Service Pro Cycling Team, and by 1998, he was able to make his successful
return in the cycling world marked by his fourth place overall finish
in the Vuelta a España.
Armstrong's 2005 Tour victory took place on July 24. His Discovery
team won the team time trial, but he won only one individual stage,
the final individual time trial. He looked strong from the beginning
of the tour, being beaten in the first stage by only two seconds and
passing one of his major competitors, Jan Ullrich, on the road. In
the Alps and the Pyrenees he answered all attacks, even when his teammates,
whose role was to support him, could not keep pace. Because of wet
streets in Paris on the last stage, the referees decided that the final
General Classification overall time for the Tour would be taken 50
kilometers before the end, to avoid even more crashes. Armstrong crossed
the finish line to cheers of the French and international public, for
his seventh consecutive Tour de France win, records for total Tour
wins and consecutive Tour wins.
Many have discussed the reasons for Armstrong's success in winning
seven Tours in a row. Few would disagree that his success involved
some combination of the following reasons, and probably a different
mix each year.
Training methodology and preparation
Armstrong has clearly triumphed at least partly because he learned
to apply the obsessive focus he developed fighting cancer to making
a career of winning the Tour de France, training in Spain for months
leading up to the Tour and making frequent trips to France to fully
analyze and ride key parts of the upcoming Tour course.
Johan Bruyneel
Few would disagree (perhaps least of all, Armstrong himself) at how
instrumental the team's sports director, Belgian ex-cyclist Johan Bruyneel,
had been in all of Lance's victories. A master technician who shared
Lance's obsession for detailed preparation, Bruyneel's symbiotic relationship
with Armstrong makes it difficult for even them to ascertain which
one influenced the other how much. Starting with Armstrong talking
Bruyneel into becoming their sports director, and Bruyneel convincing
Armstrong that he could win the Tour, to their almost constant radio
communications during each race, the amount of support these men provided
for each other through the seven victories is immeasurable.
Superior tactics
Regardless of whether the credit goes to Armstrong or Bruyneel, there
is no question that the superior tactics employeed by Armstrong and
his team through the seven victories were virtually flawless (with
forgetting to eat lunch on one mountain stage in the 2000 Tour standing
out as the rare exception). Focusing the efforts of all team members
on a victory for Armstrong, the list of brilliant tactics employed
by Armstrong and his team goes on and on. In contrast, the glaring
mistakes made by his opponents, some repeated year after year, didn't
hurt his ability to succeed.
Riding style
Armstrong's riding style is also distinctive. He has an extremely high
anaerobic threshold and therefore can maintain a higher cadence (often
120 rpm) in a lower gear than his competitors. This style is in direct
contrast to previous champions such as five-time Tour de France winner
Miguel Induráin, who used a high gear and brute strength. Armstrong
maintained a high speed even when going up the most daunting climbs
of the Tour and, at times, even specialist climbers like Marco Pantani
were unable to keep pace with him consistently.
Strongest in climbing and time trials
Unlike most gifted climbers, Armstrong also excelled 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. In the mold
of Induráin, Armstrong is not consistently aggressive during
a Tour, preferring to gain a lead in the time trials or with a few
well-placed mountain attacks before sitting back and letting his team
defend the lead. Despite this relatively defensive strategy, Armstrong's
mountain attacks were often so dominant that he put minutes on his
rivals over just a few kilometers.
Rare athletic physical attributes
All top cyclists have excellent key physical attributes. Armstrong
is no exception, although in one way, he may be unusually good even
for an elite athlete. He is near the top but not at the top aerobically,
having a VO2 Max of 83.8 mL/kg/min -- much higher than the average
person (40-50) but not as high as that of some other elite cyclists,
such as Miguel Indurain (88.0) or Greg LeMond (92.5). His heart is
30 percent larger than average, but an enlarged heart is common for
athletes as well. Armstrong's most unusual attribute may be his low
lactate levels: even with intense training, while most other racers
are in the twenties, Armstrong doesn't go above a 6. Some theorize
that his high pedaling cadence is designed to take advantage of this,
while others -- like Jan Ullrich -- rely on their aerobic capacity
more, pushing a large gear at a lower rate.
Strength of his team
Some have attributed Armstrong's success in recent years in part to
his US Postal Service cycling team (now the Discovery Channel Team).
Throughout his wins in the Tour de France, Lance has slowly built up
the strength of his team. In his first few Tour victories, his team
was not considered exceptionally strong. Yet it is evident by the wins
of his team in the Team Time Trial in his last three Tour de France
victories that they are now one of the most dominating teams in the
Pro Tour Circuit. 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. However, the
decisive moves in which he gains very large leads over the competition
almost always involve Armstrong racing far ahead of his team, and Armstrong
has often fended off multiple attacks even when his team falters and
he is isolated unexpectedly.
Support of broader team
Armstrong also revolutionized the support behind his well-funded teams,
asking his sponsors and equipment suppliers to contribute and act as
one cohesive part of the team. For example, rather than having the
bike frame, handlebars, and tires of a bicycle designed and developed
by separate companies miles away from each other, his teams adopted
a Formula 1-style relationship with sponsors and suppliers, taking
full advantage of the combined resources of several organizatons working
in close communication. This is now the standard in the professional
cycling industry. Needless to say, Lance demanded the same level of
perfection from others he sought for himself.
Allegations of drug use
Like many top cyclists, Armstrong has long been accused of using performance-enhancing
drugs. Armstrong and his supporters have often attributed accusations
of doping to jealousy and sensationalist journalism by French and European
newspapers such as l'Équipe; some American journalists even
have attributed them to anti-americanism, though European newspapers
have made similar accusations against European riders such as Richard
Virenque and Marco Pantani.
Prior to August 2005 a variety of accusations were made but none of his accusers provided compelling evidence. An accusation was made in 1999, when Armstrong tested positive for corticoids. Armstrong explained he had used an external ointment in order to treat a rash, and produced a prescription for it. Use of the ointment broke cycling rules which state that while such external corticoids are legal, prescriptions must be shown to sports authorities in advance. However, sports authorities accepted the explanation and cleared Armstrong. Use of prescriptions unmotivated by medical needs, particularly external corticoids which cannot be distinguished from (prohibited) injected ones, has been described by some cycling insiders as a widespread trick.
On August 23, 2005, L'Équipe, the major French daily sports newspaper, reported on its front page under the headline "The Armstrong Lie" that the cyclist had taken EPO during the prologue and five stages of the 1999 Tour de France but said that it had not technically tested positive because at that point EPO tests were not administered. The newspaper then reprinted two kinds of documents: one were urine sample record forms, filled at the time when samples were taken, signed by the athlete and testing officials, and bearing sample numbers. It is unknown how the newspaper may have obtained such documents or whether they are authentic. The other were results from the comparison of 3 testing methods (two older and one newer ones) on many samples from the 1999 Tour, undertaken by the LNDD (French National Doping Detection Laboratory, a French public laboratory specialized in doping techniques) on numbered samples. By comparing numbers on the two kinds of documents, l'Équipe concluded that 6 samples of Armstrong's tested positive for EPO on all three methods.
Armstrong's web site commented - "Yet again, a European newspaper has reported that I have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Tomorrow’s L’Equipe, a French sports daily, is reporting that my 1999 samples were positive. Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues and tomorrow’s article is nothing short of tabloid journalism. The paper even admits in its own article that the science in question here is faulty and that I have no way to defend myself. They state: 'There will therefore be no counter-exam nor regulatory prosecutions, in a strict sense, since defendant’s rights cannot be respected.' I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs."
The director of the official French anti-doping test laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry, Jacques de Ceaurriz [2] was quoted as saying he had "no doubt about the validity of our results." [3] He said that while being kept for long periods can cause EPO proteins to deteriorate, this would possibly result in negative tests for doped athletes, but not false positives. He also said that his laboratory worked on numbered anonymous samples, and was unaware when he sent his results to WADA/AMA that some of the results concerned Lance Armstrong.
In addition to these accusations, and in response to them, Armstrong has also received open backing from US Cycling [4], individual cycling officials [5], from former Tour winners Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain [6], and other public figures.
Supporters argue numerous irregularities in the doping claim: "' Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the US Anti-Doping Agency, they've all defined a process for collecting samples, managing samples, testing the samples, identifying the people who are involved,' said Johnson. ' They have certain rights in the process. None of that has been followed in this case.' Officials from cycling's ruling body (UCI), Wada, the French sports ministry and the Tour de France all agree normal anti-doping proceedings have not been followed. ' This isn't a 'doping positive. This is just a publication in a French tabloid newspaper. That's our perspective,'" added Johnson.'"--BBC
These allegations are still under examination by a number of news and anti-doping organizations.
UCI Statement
On September 9, after a period of investigation, the UCI finally released
a strongly-worded official statement condemning the WADA, the French
laboratory in question, and the paper L'Equipe, for having failed
to provide any official communication, and having failed to provide
any data, evidence, or background on the allegations. The UCI stated
that it was still "awaiting plausible answers" to its requests
to WADA and the laboratory, but also indicated "We deplore the
fact that the long-established and entrenched confidentiality principle
could be violated in such a flagrant way without any respect for
fair play and the rider's privacy." [7]
The accusers themselves, in particular the World Anti-Doping Agency, might face an investigation into their own practices, in connection to their allegations against Armstrong. The UCI stated "We have substantial concerns about the impact of this matter on the integrity of the overall drug testing regime of the Olympic movement, and in particular the questions it raises over the trustworthiness of some of the sports and political authorities active in the anti-doping fight."
It now remains to be seen what steps will be taken on the aftermath of UCI's denouncement, and whether the Armstrong doping allegations will be able to retain any credibility, since the accusers are now the ones under official scrutiny for questionable practices, irregularities, and violations in their conduct against the cyclist. Unless the WADA, the laboratory, and L'Equipe quickly supply concrete proof to back up their previous statements, the case against the American will evaporate, and the new focal point of the investigation will be the misconduct of the various Armstrong accusers.
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