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| Lance Armstrong | ||||
| Birthdate: 9/18/71 Hometown: Austin, Texas Discipline: Road Team: Retired Website: www.lancearmstrong.com Olympian: 1992, 1996, 2000 Bronze Medalist Time Trial (2000) Career Highlights: Seven - time Tour de France winner ('99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05) 1993 World Champion 2000 Olympic Bronze Medalist 13 Career Tour de France Stage Wins 1993 USPRO Champion Two-Time Tour du Pont Overall Champion (1995, '96) |
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| Introduction | ||||
| Not only is Lance Armstrong a three-time Olympian, he is also a cancer survivor and one of the greatest contributors to the sport of cycling. The Texan joined an elite group in 2003 when he took his fifth Tour de France crown; he then entered the history books by winning the Tour a sixth time in 2004, a feat never accomplished by anyone before him. | ||||
| Personal | ||||
| In 1996, due to agonizing pain, Lance was forced off his bike and found that he had advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. His chances of beating the illness were less than 50/50, but he was victorious and made a comeback to the cycling scene in 1998. Then in 1999, he became the first U.S. cyclist to win a mountain stage of the Tour de France since Andy Hampsten (1992). Lance has three children, Luke, and twin daughters Isabelle Rose and Grace Elizabeth. | ||||
| Favorite Pastimes | ||||
| When Lance has time for non-cycling activities, he chooses water skiing. He founded the Lance Armstrong foundation (www.laf.org) in 1997 to enhance the quality of life for those living with, through, and beyond cancer. He published his autobiography, It’s not about the Bike, in 2000, and instantly sold millions of copies. He published another book, Every Second Counts in 2003. | ||||
| How They Got Here | ||||
| Lance was raised in Texas by a single mother. He won the IronKids triathlon at the young age of 13 and became a professional triathlete at only 16. Often times, his long Saturday rides would take him over the Oklahoma border so that he had to call his mother to come pick him up. Before Lance even graduated from high school, he had a rolodex filled with potential sponsors. He qualified to train with the U.S. Olympic developmental team his senior year in high school, and then qualified for the 1989 Junior World Championships the following summer. By 1991, Armstrong was the U.S. National Amateur Champion, and was well on his way to becoming the living legend that he is today. | ||||
| Did You Know? | ||||
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| Performance | ||||
| 2005 1st Overall - Tour de France, two stage wins, including the individual and team time trial 2004 1st Overall - Tour de France 2nd - Prologue, Tour de France 6th - Stage 10, Tour de France 9th - Stage 11, Tour de France 2nd - Stage 12, Tour de France 1st - Stage 13, Tour de France 1st - Stage 15, Tour de France 1st - Stage 16, Tour de France 1st - Stage 17, Tour de France 1st - Stage 19, Tour de France 1st Overall - Tour de Georgia 1st - Stage 3, Tour de Georgia 1st - Stage 4, Tour de Georgia 3rd - Stage 6, Tour de Georgia 3rd Overall - Criterium International 5th - Stage 2, Vuelta a Murcia 1st - Stage 4, Volta ao Algarve 4th - Stage 3, Criterium International | ||||
