Lance Armstrong the Cyclist par excellence, after his great performance in the 2009 Tour de France that he nearly bagged for his supposed 8th Tour de France championship, returned to his mother country and competed to grab the Leadville 100 championship, which is the nation's highest altitude cycling endurance test, in record time. Lance Armstrong is considered as the American cyclist par excellence because of his record of winning the Tour de France, which is considered as the world's most gruelling cycling competion, for a record of seven consecutive years from 1999 to 2005. And that is only half of the story why we consider Lance Armstrong the cyclist par excellence.
Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer, a tumor that spread to his brain and lungs in 1996. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy. A person of lesser guts and courage would simply have raised the white flag and call it quits in his cylcing dream to bag the most coveted championship ever, the Tour de France. But Lance Armstrong is not made of ordinary steel. Some would say he is made out of a carbon composite material, light but very strong in both physical and mental attributes.
Needless to say, Lance Armstrong, the cyclist par excellence that he is, continued his cancer treatment while at the same time his grueling and extensive cycling preparation for the coming Tour de France of 1999. Result? He won the 1999 Tour de France Championship amid his cancer treatment. The wonder of it all is that the following year, he again won the Tour de France championship and every year thereafter up to 2005, where he accumulated a total of seven (7) consecutive Tour de France championship, a feat no other human being has done, besides being a cancer victim.
Actually, I decided to feature Lance Armstrong and his accomplishments despite the odds against him because of his battle with cancer to give hope and inspiration to other cancer sufferers to include a good friend who is also an athlete. Here now is Lance Armstrong, the cyclist par excellence in a You Tube video during the 2009 Tour de France.