One last Tour for Lance Armstrong to chase 7th win, then retire
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Lance Armstrong made a career of doing the impossible.
He beat life-threatening testicular cancer and then miraculously won the 1999 Tour de France. Then he beat history by capturing the 2004 Tour de France, a record sixth straight.
Now, he is racing time — and the odds — in trying to capture cycling's grandest prize one more time as he rides into the sunset. Armstrong, 33, announced yesterday that he would retire after this year's Tour de France in July.
"Whenever I watch sports, no matter what sport it may be, I love to see the guy go out on top. I'd love to try and do that," Armstrong said yesterday in Augusta, Ga., where he was to compete in the Tour of Georgia that begins today.
"The passion is there and the will to win another one is there," he said. "Above all, this will to win one final one and then stop is pretty important to me."
It would be a Hollywood ending for Armstrong's fairy-tale career. If Armstrong wins a seventh Tour de France, he'd do it as the oldest cyclist in modern history to capture the sport's premier event against a deep, young crop of competitors just itching to knock off the champ.
While a loss certainly wouldn't diminish Armstrong's legacy in cycling or American culture, the fear of losing drives him.
"All champions are concerned about losing," he said. "That's the fear that drives them. That's the fear that gets them up early. I don't want to lose No. 7."
There are reasons to question the quest for No. 7. He'll face constant scrutiny from the European press, seemingly eager to confirm suspicions of performance-enhancing drug use. Last year, Armstrong received death threats during the race.
Armstrong says he is retiring to spend more time with his three young children: son Luke 5, and twin daughters Grace and Isabelle, 3. He admitted the longing to be with them while away in Europe racing, and said training is "more difficult" now than ever before.
"The biggest inspiration in my life and the biggest inspiration in this decision has been my children," he said. "They're the ones who make it easier to struggle [during training] and they're also the ones who taught me it's time to come home."
Armstrong's riding in France translated the foreignness of a cycling stage race into an idiom his countrymen could understand: winning, six years straight. His triumph over cancer translated into inspiration for what he calls "my other team, the 10 million cancer survivors around the country," many of whom wear the yellow "Livestrong" bracelets still, and whom he thanked yesterday.
He also thanked singer Sheryl Crow, who became Armstrong's companion after his separation and eventual divorce from Kristin Richard, the mother of his children. Crow wondered how Armstrong could stick to his decision to retire after watching his reaction to the telecast of last month's Milan-San Remo race.
"I couldn't sit down the entire race," Armstrong said. "She said, 'Look at you, you can't even sit down, how are you going to retire?' That's a great question, but the decision was final."
Armstrong's long-term contract with the Discovery Channel, which became his team sponsor this season, required him to do one more Tour de France. He said he would stay involved with the team as an adviser and consultant and might enter, for fun, an occasional mountain-bike race.
Diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer that spread to his brain and lungs, Armstrong's survival is his greatest victory. His recovery, after months of chemotherapy and radiation, brought an unexpected consequence: a lighter, differently proportioned body that made him a far better climber, giving him a chance in mountainous stage races like the Tour de France.
His startling triumph in the 1999 Tour, a year after the race and the sport had been rocked by a doping scandal, brought not only acclaim but, inevitably, questions that continue to dog him about use of performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong has filed lawsuits against several people involved in linking him to or accusing him of doping.
"It's never fun, and nobody wants to waste their time with that stuff, but to me it's about justice," Armstrong said of the lawsuits during a phone interview last week.
In the end, win or lose when the Tour concludes July 24, Armstrong has outlasted his doubters. He proved the doctors happily wrong. He took pleasure in crushing the European team that dropped him when he became sick. He won the biggest race of all, then won it again and again, all the while fighting off the doping rumors.
"In 1999, when the guy who was never supposed to live came back and won a bike race that was supposed to be the dirtiest sporting event in the world, the questions started," Armstrong said.
"[That's] five, six years ago, and I'm still here. The questions have continued, the suspicions have continued ... but the performance has not gone away. Sometimes you see athletes where they get a lot of attention, a lot of scrutiny, the crush does come along and the performance diminishes.
"I'm proud to say that's never happened to me."
Material from The Philadelphia Inquirer is included in this report.