Lance Armstrong - the ultimate athlete of our generation ?
 

Watching Lance now on his last ever competitive stage as a professional bicycle racer got me thinking .....

Is he not just absolutely awesome ???

Talent, relentless determination, gracious and ultimately dominant in one of the worlds hardest individual events.

Lance Armstrong, I salute you.

Sheryl Crowe ..
 

... I salute you too :lol:

'He said he was into intellectualism, I've never been there but the brochure looks nice'

post race interview .. how humble can this guy be .....

Totally agree with every word regarding Lance Armstrong. I was going to go on a rant about how, purely as a cyclist, he's still not a patch on Eddy Merckx, but I thought that wasn't really appropriate when Armstrong is on the verge of an incredible, unbelievable 7th Tour win.

The really amazing thing is that it was the cancer that was an important contributor to his success as a tour rider. Pre-cancer, he was a beefy one-day specialist, with no hope of clawing himself over the mountains with the leaders. I guess the cancer stripped off a lot of his bulk, and he somehow managed to retain his pre-illness cardiovascular potential.

I hope he now retires and looks after himself. Too many pro cyclists die young, never mind one who has already clawed himself back from the brink of death.

I used to partake in both his sports, triathlon and cycl races and I would argue the toss about Mercx but one day specialist?? Err, he didnt do bad for a World Champion Triathlete at the age of 21 and was just finding his feet in the peleton with Jim Ocawicz in Motorola! He was drawn to cycling because it was his strongest event of the three and hadn't looked back after that. I agree his Cancer experience had a lot to do with his present standard but it's more to do with mindset. If you WANT to do something bad enough, then NOTHING will stop you, that's one thing he can teach ALL of us ;) even if he truly was an arrogant ****, but then he is Texan and if you listen to most people in the top 1% of their sport they're all much the same, they HAVE to be to get there! He does seem to have come down to near human levels of attitude now he's decided to step down, and, as you say Ian, lets hope he DOES step down or Le Tour will be even more like F1 next year ;)

Having read both of Lance's book's I can only agree with these sentiments.

The Tour is the ultimate test for cyclist in the hardest race in the world and Lance has dominated it for seven years continuously.

He might not be the best cyclist ever but I think he is the greatest inspiration the sport has ever had.

Frank

Agreed...Lance is an icon of our times..

But hey.....wasn't Rasmusson like a man possessed losing the front and sliding 15 feet on his ar$e in lycra shorts (Youch!!!!) and then having to stop twice to change wheels/bikes and then riding into a ditch and cartwheeling it, again in lycra (Double-Youch!!!!) to still finish the 55km stage. Pretty damn tuff I say.

One for the ladies maybe - lol
 

Just thought I'd have a quick look to find a suitable photo and of couse, manage to find a totally unsuitable one !!!!

A great TDF rider yes, one of the greatest cyclists ever?? not in my opinion. Too few classic wins and not enough major tours although maybe it is now impossible post drugs and with big TDF sponsorship to ever have those days again ( sh*t, even his kids were fully Nike'd today).

Even though he's not one of my favourite riders I still cheered him on today just like I did watching that Oslo worlds win oh so long ago. the 2 Lance's couldn't have been so different post race, then the brash Texas kid who wanted to conquer the world now replaced by a mellow almost humble Lance who understands he's achieved more than even he could dream of and justs wants to spend time with his family.

As an inspiration to others he is priceless and lets hope his absence from cycling gives him more time for fund raising and meeting people,

Steve Redgrave.....(Sir)

Had diabetes for the last 7 years as well....

TOTAL admiration for the guy

Jas

The Tour is without question the hardest sporting event in our time hands down, anyone else know 1 that is harder?

He is an inspiration to all when life seems to be taking a turn for the worst.
i can speak personally there too.

/ian

Fully agreed, a friend of mine who has been diagnosed 3 times with cancer uses Lance as his inspiration, even being diagnosed with Parkinson's he's still thinking positive. He's a cyclist, fell runner and one of the toughest characters I know ( held Pennine Way non stop record running and biking) and he knows that he has to be as tough as Lance, personally I think he's tougher but he needs Lance.

:saint:Lance is a legend,a term used far too often these days.I was in Paris in 99 for his first win,one of the greatest weekends of my life.
Still prefer LeMond and Indurain as cyclists,but i cannot deny he is the best the sport has ever seen.Even the French have started to realise it.:devil:

Blimey, good job I didn't start then, we'd be at it all day!


No arguments there...favourite quotes:

When a sympathetic nurse told him not to worry if he couldn't fully extend a lung -function device after surgery

"are you ****t1ng me? I do this for a living"

When accused of drug taking by French Journalists

"just because you people aren't good enough to win your own race, don't take it out on me"

One of nature's diplomats!