| Show Lance Armstrong wins his seventh Brett Vietti Contributing Writer Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour De France on July 22 And if that was not enough he put an exclamation point on his victory In 1996 Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer This was to be a minor diagnosis but the doctors found out later that the cancer had spread into his stomach and lungs and also his brain He held a press conference and told reporters and the rest of the world that not only would he beat the cancer but that h he would also continue to race professionally after his treatment After nearly a year of extensive therapy chemo-therapy and three operations one of which was done on his brain Armstrong held fast to the dream of going back to racing and being competitive competitive com com- in world cycling The world has never seen anyone fight harder than Armstrong did to come back from this near death sentence sentence sentence sen sen- tence and get back into cycling He has hasset hasset hasset set the standard for future cyclist and also for many cancer patients As incredible as winning one Tour De France would have been Armstrong has continued to prove to himself and to the rest of the world that what ever you set your mind to you youcan youcan youcan can accomplish it Despite the pain and suffering he has had to endure while fighting the cancer he came back to set the record with seven Tours in seven years All of this has not come cheap Armstrong has been through a divorce and has been away from his three children children children chil chil- dren for a better part of their lives He has spent most of that time in France where he has trained hard most of the year on the same roads that he traveled on this years year's Tour Armstrongs Armstrong's training regimen is demanding He has the highest revolutions revolutions revolutions per minute of any cyclist on the tour and his heart rate threshold is also higher than the other riders Doctors have said that his heart is a third bigger that most adults Most people that seriously follow cycling know what he can do in the mountain stages of the Tour After hearing the interviews of some of his fellow racers you get the sense of how much better he is as an around all-around cyclist Most of the best mountain riders riders riders rid rid- ers in the world say that he is an animal in the mountains and will beat the best of them any time he wants to He has won almost all of his victories in the mountains As a double threat he has almost every time trial section since he has been with the Tour These are two disciplines that will give you the most time over your competitors He not only has incredible strength but is a master tactician On his ride into Paris he finished that leg of the tour in place and rode under the Arch De Triumph rather casually and then held up seven fingers to let everyone know this was his final ride Armstrong has set a record that likely will never be broken He has also inspired many people to get into cycling as well as many cancer patients to go on when it seems like the thelast thelast thelast last thing they want to do He inspires others to push through the unpleasant parts of life because it can always be much worse |
