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 12 years old, he started off his career by winning in an adult competition. He actually started out as a tri-athlete. He was positioned as number 1 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 finished the race at the fourteenth position in the 1992 Summer Olympics. In the World Road Race, he became the youngest rider to win the championship. In 1999, Lance Armstrong went on to win the greatest prestigious race, Tour de France and subsequently went on to earn it 7 years in a row, from 1999 to 2005 which broke the prior record set by Miguel Indurian, who won the race five times consecutively. In 1999 ABC television network titled 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 sequential years, from 2002-2005 he was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. In 2003, the BBC, presented him the Sports Personality award of the Year recognised as the Overseas Personality Award. Lance Armstrong has supported his victories by proclaiming that he had trained for many months in Spain. He was able to win the Tour de France 7 times consecutively because all his emphasis was only on the Tour de France and he would not take part in any other competition, which provided him the chance to train for 180 days at a stretch. In that period former cyclist Chris Carmichael, who was also his coach, trained him. Armstrong explained he was able to retain increased cadence in a lesser gear when compared to previous champions who utilized a high gear and incredible strength. High cadence leads to a reduced amount of leg muscles fatigue in comparison to lower cadence, which leads to serious leg muscle contractions. He furthermore had a substantial aerobic threshold. His high pedaling cadence was caused by his low lactate level, that was his most unusual quality. Although Armstrongs team was not that strong initially 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 frequently he was isolated. He strengthened this team by making sponsors and equipment suppliers interact. He did this by obtaining bicycle parts which at that time, were being designed by different companies. Simply because they were separate companies, they never interacted with one another. Armstrong with able to get the sponsors and the bicycle part suppliers to work together 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 adopted this strategy. Lance Armstrong has also had more than his fair share of life's problems. In 1996, He underwent brain and testicular surgery. Testicular cancer was detected in the 3rd 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 exceptionally low survival rate, he elected for a dangerous chemotherapy treatment so he could resume his career. His unbelievably courageous recovery and his astonishing success influenced him to set the foundation for his charity, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, established in 1997. He went back to bicycling after just three years and won, the first of seven, Tour de France titles by triumphing over Alex Zulle by seven minutes and 37 seconds. There were people over the years, who question his achievements and say that Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs to win in certain cases. 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 might 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 centred on his charity foundation and has taken part in numerous marathons.
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Did you know Lance Armstrong has even appeared in the movies? You may have seen him in the movie Dodgeball, or maybe in 2004 the movie called A True Underdog Story.
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