Only with his Tour de France title finally assured during the last leg on the cobblestoned Champs-Elys Dees, did Lance Armstrong celebrate by lifting a flute of champagne to a resounding "Cheers!''
Overcoming crashes, illness, hard-charging rivals and plain old bad luck, the Texan won his hardest but sweetest Tour on Sunday -- a record-tying fifth straight that places him among the greatest cyclists ever.
Unlike previous years, when he won by comfortable margins, the grueling 23-day, 2,125-mile clockwise trek around France pushed Armstrong to the limit.
"Before the Tour started I was very confident about winning. But before next year's Tour, I won't be so confident,'' he said.
Armstrong joined Spaniard Miguel Indurain as the only riders to win cycling's most brutal and prestigious race five times consecutively -- a record Armstrong plans to break in 2004.
King de Lance
Armstrong
A look at Lance Armstrong's Tour de France career:
TOUR VICTORIES: Five straight from 1999-03, tying the record for consecutive wins set by Miguel Indurain of Spain (1991-95). Three others won five Tours, but not in a row -- Jacques Anquetil of France (1957, 1961-64), Eddy Merckx of Belgium (1969-72, 1974), and Bernard Hinault of France (1978-79, 1981-82, 1985).
STAGE VICTORIES: 16 -- one each in 1993, 1995, 2000, 2003; four each in 1999, 2001, 2002. His U.S. Postal Service team also won a time trial together this year. Merckx won a record 34 stages, Hinault 28, Anquetil 16, and Indurain 12.
WINNING MARGINS: Beat Alex Zulle of Switzerland by 7 minutes, 37 seconds in 1999, Jan Ullrich of Germany by 6:02 in 2000, Ullrich by 6:44 in 2001, Joseba Beloki of Spain by 7:17 in 2002, and Ullrich by 1:01 this year. The largest gap between the winner and runner-up in race history is nearly 3 hours -- 2:59:21 to be exact -- set by Maurice Garin of France in the first Tour in 1903. The smallest margin is 8 seconds, in Greg LeMond's victory over Laurent Fignon in 1989.
AGE: 31; Armstrong will turn 32 in September and plans to compete in the 2004 Tour. Since 1953, seven riders 31 or older have won. The oldest was Firmin Lambot of Belgium, 36 in 1922. Of the other five-time champions, only Indurain won at 31 -- and that was the Spaniard's age for his final victory.
ENTRIES: This was Armstrong's ninth Tour de France. Joop Zoetemelk of the Netherlands raced in the most, 16.
Pastrana’s Idea of the Nitro Circus Started when Travis became a big deal at the X-Games. Travis, Winning the X-Games Freestyle Motocross on August 4, 2000, he performed the first ever double backflip ever in X-games history. Not only only did this open up eyes see what is possible in the dirt bike world but It also show Travis’s innovation and love to the sport. This is a major time in Pastrana's life as it changes view on what his future might hold. (Travis Pastrana | 1999-X-Games)
In 1996 he started to race professionally. He raced the motocross season and got eighth over all in that season. When the season was over he was named rookie of the year for doing his best in that se...
a race with his friend Breeca. He knew that he would win with no effort at all,
In 1992, a group of 20 visionary bull riders broke away from rodeo seeking better bulls and better money to form a bull rider’s only association. They met in a hotel room in Arizona and put up 1,000 each to form what is now know as the PBR. The PBR became popular in the Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Brazil for the money and top bulls. At the end of the season, the world champion rider wins a one million dollar bonus. On average an event winner brings home about $35,000. However, not anybody can hop on the PBR tour and make these large sums of money, one has to earn their way through the Touring Pro Division also known as the Velocity tour (Professional Bull Riders, Inc).
At the Olympic Games at Stockholm, Sweden, in 1912, Jim Thorpe performed the dazzling accomplishment of winning both the five-event pentathlon and ten-event-decathlon, an achievement that had never ever been performed by an athlete. King Gustav of Sweden presented the winners their gold medals. When it was Thorpe’s turn, he draped the medal about his shoulders and said, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.
- second in 45-49 age group in national championship 100 km in 8:51 in New York City in 1993, and
"He's a motorcycle daredevil driver. All his life he's been doing death defying feats. Death has nearly defied him several times. His longest jump was fifty yards, a fifty-yard jump over the fountains of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. This jump did not go well. You may have read about it. Or seen some still photos of it. He has some film with him of what happened. He seems to spend his life, or what he has left of it, it sometimes seems to be, seeing what he can do to shorten it. Incredible things he does... Will you welcome the legendary Evel Knievel"(Montville 7). Born Robert Knievel, “Evel” was not your average Joe. Going through many job and family changes in his life, he went from a life of crime behind bars to becoming one of the most influential and popular people of his time. While going through adulthood, Knievel picked up many hobbies, including riding motorcycles, which he is still remembered for today. After many years, tricks and attempts, his stunts he performed for the world were always known as successes, even after going home with broken bones, if he even got to leave a hospital bed. Evel Knievel influenced today's' daredevils with his bold attempts that are still legendary considering his exemplary maturation, innovative hobbies, and successes at unimaginable stunts.
Evel Knievel was supposedly the, “Best American Daredevil” who defied gravity as he rode his motorcycle into the heights of International fame with increasingly challenging and thrilling jumps. His popularity transcended the world of stunts during the early 1970’s. His death defying acts attracted thousands of thrill seekers and millions more watched on television. Coming from humble beginnings, Evel Knievel proved that you could be whatever you wanted to be as he shocked the world with his exhilarating stunts and fearless attitude.
Jimmy worked like a demon to make up for the difference. By age 8, Jimmy was skillful enough to enter into tournaments, and he made a good showing in them. Jimmy did not win his first tournament until he was in the ten-year-old competition. The losses only gave him determination and the wins only gave humbleness. Jimmy Connors, a paragon of all sorts, had an unconquerable spirit. Jimmy knew that he had to be himself out on the tennis courts if he wanted to succeed. At times in Jimmy’s career, he was known as a spoiled brat for his cocky attitude. He was often called “mouth”. He had this spirit ever since he was a young boy. Being the smaller kid of his age group, he had to have something to hold onto.
After winning six junior championships between the ages of eight and 15, Tiger went on to become the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur Champion in history, a feat he would repeat the following year, making him also the only player to ever win more than once. He would even go on to win it for a third consecutive time the following year. At 16 he competed in the Nissan Los Angeles Open, his first PGA Tour event. At 18, Woods won the U.S. Amateur Championship, the youngest to accomplish this feat. Next, he enrolled at Stanford University and at 19 successfully defended his Amateur Championship title, the second of three consecutive titles.
Evel Knievel was not afaid of failure, even whe he crashed a lot, but that is what makes him a brave daredevil. “Robert Craig Knievel Jr. died in November after 69 years, which by all means is more than twice as long as it should have taken him” (Time).
...orking hard like the rest of his competitors. His entire career was gone in an instant. Stripped of his titles and banned from ever professionally cycling again left him as only a man addicted to drugs.
s what he went out and did. Althoguh int eh end, he enver got his bike back, but much more. including six Kentucky Golden Glove titles, two National Golden Gloves, two Amateur Athletic Union championships, a Gold Medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Rome Olympic games, and the world professional heavyweight championship, three times.
It was an unforgiving 95 degrees Fahrenheit in eastern France last week. Rain had fallen nearly every day of the week prior to Stage 16, Wednesday, July 21, making for a very steamy road up the face of one of the most unforgiving mountain rides a cyclist can make in the course of his or her riding career. Nearly one million people lined the narrow mountain road leading to the peak of L'Alpe D'Huez to watch a one man, Lance Armstrong, in the time trial of his life. This seemingly immortal man had survived cancer to make this climb his top achievement leading him to victory five times previously. Could Lance pull off an unprecedented sixth win? He rehearsed this scene time after time over the course of the previous year in preparation for such a time as this. That preparation paid off. He climbed this mountain in exactly 61 seconds faster than any of his nearly 200 competitors. One million people in a less than 20 mile stretch of road all to watch a bicycle race. But this was no normal race, this was, after all, The Tour de France. Considered to be the most physically unremitting sporting event known to man, this mere bicycle race has a history richer than many nations in and of themselves. Over a hundred years ago, in a turbulent, at best, France, two men found their way into a personal disagreement. The results of which, over a century later would still draw spectators by the thousands to the hillsides of France for what would become the greatest continuing nationalist and sporting spectacle of that country.
Armstrong, Lance, and Sally Jenkins. It's Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. New York: Putnam, 2000. Print.