Lance Armstrong, an inspirational living legend in the world of cycling
Lance Armstrong, the most well known and successful cyclist was born on September 18, 1971 in Texas, USA. From the very beginning, he had a strong interest for sports. In his teens he started off as a swimmer and was better known for freestyle swimming.
However, he then realised that he had a potential for cycling after winning a triathlon, in which he easily participated and shocked everyone by winning. After that victory he ended his stay with swimming and started taking cycling seriously.
He gained immense popularity in winning triathlon races in the category of under nineteen. In 1989-1990 he became a professional tri-athlete when he was just 18 years old.
His fantastic story of success continued and he won the USA Amateur Championship in 1991. After participating in Summer Olympics from USA his professional career started with his first contract with Motorola. With his sponsor he was able to continue with
the same performance by taking first position in the, Trophee Laigueglia.
1993, proved a remarkable year for him where he won a number of one-day events and stage races. He was the youngest player to win the UCI, World Championship held in Norway.
After that big victory he managed to bag US$1 million by winning all three races in the USPRO National Championship in Philadelphia known as Thrift Drug triple down of cycling. They awarded him with this amount for his memorable win.
In Europe, he became very famous after winning a number of races including the races held at Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Limoges in Tour De France, Tour de Pont and also stood first in La Flèche Wallonne. He was the first American, who made the nation
proud as he became the champion in the field of cycling.
Unfortunately, this great man was diagnosed with testicular cancer. This news made the entire nation sad and stressed. He was given immediate surgery as the cancer was spreading at a rapid pace. Though it took him time to recover and start again with his
cycling career and in 1998 he again started off with training for the race in Europe.
Slowly and gradually he tried to get back to the same position of success. Therefore in 1999, he was able to win the Tour De France. The year 2000 was also marked with his immense wins where he was able to give defeat to another well known cyclist, Ullrich.
In 2001, he again managed to win against the strong opponents, Ullrich and Joseba Baloki. In 2004, despite his back pain, he was able to win against the German and stood first in team's trials. His strong passion for cycling made him the first to win three
consecutive mountain races. Due to the increasing pain he officially announced to retire from the stage of cycling in 2005. But his strong infatuation with cycling in 2008 he came back and participated in Tour De France.
Throughout his career, he also faced many controversies including the DOP test problem, secret trainings, taking drugs to enhance the performance, etc.
He is successful man, who also took interest in politics. He raised many campaigns to bring awareness about the disastrous disease of cancer. He proved himself as a passionate, dedicated and hard-working cyclist. Due to such qualities he was able to reach the
height of success. Now many emerging cyclist look upon him as a role-model and try to achieve the success the way he did.
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