Lance Armstrong was one of the reasons for my sudden interest in TOUR DE FRANCE ,i still remember the the days of July 1999 ,when the whole world was fascinated by the victory of a man was who had only 40% chance of surviving cancer three years ago in 1996.i was also fascinated by his story and followed the so called "boring" sport of cycling that only europeans followed.
Though his seven tour victories from 1999 to 2005 has been a record in the tour history but he isn't the only one who has achieved great feats in the world of cycling ,he may have broken the record of five consecutive tour victories of MIGUEL INDURAIN and five non consecutive victories of legends like Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil but it can always be argued was he the greatest cyclist ever??
The accomplishments of Eddy merckx far outweigh anyone's achievements in the sport of cycling ,legendary for his domination of one day classics like milan sen -remo which he won seven times .He is the only one who won the yellow jersey(over all leader),polka doted jersey(king of mountains),and green jersey(best sprinter) in the same edition of tour the feat which has not been matched by anyone else till date and probably will never be done ,he was like a beast on the bike and never relied much on support of his team mates as lance did over the years in tours ,he took TOUR DE FRANCE as just one of the races in the year but lance took it as the only race of the year ,clearly he was the best bike rider till today.
My admiration of lance goes much beyond cycling ,the way he fought through his cancer diagnoses and emerged as a stronger person both mentally and physically has always made me believe that one can come out and deal with any adversity in life and come out stronger and more focussed than he has been ,though his accomplishments in cycling can never be forgotten but his deeds off the pedals are more inspiring than on the bike,one can learn a lot from him about the preparation for a long and important task ahead ,he prepared for the tour nearly 300 days a year for that 21 days on the legendary roads of France in the month of July ,so that he can prove to people that he can do it again.The time he spent at the labs of MIT so that he could get the perfect bike for the tour is truly one of a kind in sports which had been never practiced till lance did it,beyond cycling his work in the field of cancer giving hope to millions of people around the world that they can fight this disease through the LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION is one of a kind.
As Armstrong quoted after winning the tour de france in 2005 ,his last triumph on the Champs-Élysées
"Finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour. Forever."
This sums up the true Armstrong we all know ,we all have admired over the past years ,as he said that people who don't believe in cycling cannot dream big ,but apart from them if u don't dream big you cannot achieve much in life , if Kekule had not dreamt we would never have seen the aromatic ring in benzene ,miracles do happen and will happen we just have to believe we can do it,as lance showed us the way.He brought cycling to the stage where people followed it all around the world ,not just in europe but in america and other parts .The true side of lance can be depicted by his autobiography "It's not about the bike,my journey back to life" ,which highlights the fact that fighting cancer is of more importance than winning races .
In the end i would like to sum up lance's story as the greatest come back in the history of sports ,he has shown us nothing is impossible if we believe in ourselves then we can accomplish any feat in this world ,so in the end i would only day vive le lance.LONG LIVE lance.
Though his seven tour victories from 1999 to 2005 has been a record in the tour history but he isn't the only one who has achieved great feats in the world of cycling ,he may have broken the record of five consecutive tour victories of MIGUEL INDURAIN and five non consecutive victories of legends like Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil but it can always be argued was he the greatest cyclist ever??
The accomplishments of Eddy merckx far outweigh anyone's achievements in the sport of cycling ,legendary for his domination of one day classics like milan sen -remo which he won seven times .He is the only one who won the yellow jersey(over all leader),polka doted jersey(king of mountains),and green jersey(best sprinter) in the same edition of tour the feat which has not been matched by anyone else till date and probably will never be done ,he was like a beast on the bike and never relied much on support of his team mates as lance did over the years in tours ,he took TOUR DE FRANCE as just one of the races in the year but lance took it as the only race of the year ,clearly he was the best bike rider till today.
My admiration of lance goes much beyond cycling ,the way he fought through his cancer diagnoses and emerged as a stronger person both mentally and physically has always made me believe that one can come out and deal with any adversity in life and come out stronger and more focussed than he has been ,though his accomplishments in cycling can never be forgotten but his deeds off the pedals are more inspiring than on the bike,one can learn a lot from him about the preparation for a long and important task ahead ,he prepared for the tour nearly 300 days a year for that 21 days on the legendary roads of France in the month of July ,so that he can prove to people that he can do it again.The time he spent at the labs of MIT so that he could get the perfect bike for the tour is truly one of a kind in sports which had been never practiced till lance did it,beyond cycling his work in the field of cancer giving hope to millions of people around the world that they can fight this disease through the LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION is one of a kind.As Armstrong quoted after winning the tour de france in 2005 ,his last triumph on the Champs-Élysées
"Finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour. Forever."
This sums up the true Armstrong we all know ,we all have admired over the past years ,as he said that people who don't believe in cycling cannot dream big ,but apart from them if u don't dream big you cannot achieve much in life , if Kekule had not dreamt we would never have seen the aromatic ring in benzene ,miracles do happen and will happen we just have to believe we can do it,as lance showed us the way.He brought cycling to the stage where people followed it all around the world ,not just in europe but in america and other parts .The true side of lance can be depicted by his autobiography "It's not about the bike,my journey back to life" ,which highlights the fact that fighting cancer is of more importance than winning races .
In the end i would like to sum up lance's story as the greatest come back in the history of sports ,he has shown us nothing is impossible if we believe in ourselves then we can accomplish any feat in this world ,so in the end i would only day vive le lance.LONG LIVE lance.
