Professional bicyclist Lance Armstrong, born on September 18, 1971, as Lance Edward Gunderson. He is definitely one of the most incredible athletes ever born. At the age of twelve years old, he started off his career by winning in an adult competition. He in actual fact started off as a tri-athlete. He was positioned as number 1 in 1987 and 1988 in the Tri-Fred. He earned a status of professional tri-athlete. Then in 1989 and 1990 he won the triathlon championship. He finished the race at the 14th 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 utmost prestigious race, Tour de France and after that went on to earn it 7 years consecutively, from 1999 to 2005 that broke the former record set by Miguel Indurian, who won the race five times in a row. In 1999 ABC television network named him the Wide World Sports Athlete of the Year. In 2002, he was named the Wide World Sports Athlete by Sports Illustrated magazine. For four sequential years, from 2002-2005 he was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. In 2003, the BBC, gave him the Sports Personality award of the Year recognised as the Overseas Personality Award. Lance Armstrong has backed his victories by proclaiming that he had trained for several 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 participate in any other competition, which gave him the chance to train for one hundred and eighty days at a time. In that period former cyclist Chris Carmichael, who was also his coach, trained him. Armstrong explained he was able to retain higher cadence in a lesser gear when compared to past champions who utilized a high gear and brute strength. High pedal rotation leads to much less leg muscles stress when compared to lower pedal rotation, which leads to severe leg muscle contractions. He also had a substantial aerobic threshold. His higher pedaling cadence was caused by his low lactate level, that was his most unique quality. Though Armstrongs team was not that strong to begin with in the Tour de France, the later victories he accomplished, brought up the team level. Armstrong is also a part of the US Postal Service bicycling team. But unfortunately his US postal service team members were not a match to his caliber and often he was isolated. He strengthened this team by making sponsors and equipment suppliers interact. He did this by obtaining bicycle parts which during the time, were being designed by different companies. Since 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 generated such an impact that still today, there are countless companies in the cycling circuit that have adopted this strategy. Lance Armstrong has unfortunately 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 incredibly courageous recovery and his astonishing success motivated him to set the foundation for his charity, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, established in 1997. He went back to bicycling after just 3 years and won, the first of seven, Tour de France titles by triumphing over Alex Zulle by 7 minutes and thirty-seven seconds. There have been people over the years, who doubt his achievements and claim that Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs to win in some cases. None 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 may have seen him in the movie Dodgeball, or perhaps 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 concentrated on his charity foundation and has taken part in several 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 perhaps in 2004 the movie called A True Underdog Story.
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