Born on September 18, 1971 as Lance Edward Gunderson, Lance Armstrong is a former professional cyclist from the United States. Known for his cycling prowess, his career has a history of outstanding achievements and also controversies linked to doping.
His athletic journey began with the City of Plano Swim Club at the age of 12. Early on, he made a splash by placing fourth in the Texas 1500-meter freestyle championship. But his path in the sport changed when he spotted an ad for a triathlon and decided to give it a try, where he had a standout win.
During the years 1987-1988, Armstrong earned the number one spot on the U.S. triathlon calendar in the 19-and-under age group. His triathlon skills were evident, and at age 16 he became a professional triathlete. As a teenager, he won national sprint championships in 1989 and 1990, and despite his triathlon success, he demonstrated a knack for cycling.
This was confirmed by winning the amateur championship in 1991 and the professional Lombard Week race. His performances enabled him to represent the United States in road racing at the Barcelona Olympics.
He gained fame in cycling when he joined the Motorola team and achieved his first victory in the Trofeo Laigueglia in Italy. In 1993, his sporting career hit a high point when he won the World Road Championships in Oslo, Norway. A year later, in 1995, he again won the San Sebastian Classic and a stage of the Tour de France.
Everything changed for Armstrong in 1996 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer with lung and brain metastases. After surgery and chemotherapy, he began his slow recovery.
He returned to cycling in 1998 in Paris-Nice, although he abandoned the race and considered retiring. However, after much reflection and support from his coach, he decided to continue competing. He surprised everyone by winning the Tour de France in 1999, the start of a historic streak of seven consecutive victories.
Although he announced his retirement in 2005 after winning his seventh Tour de France, he announced his comeback in 2008. In 2011, he retired for good, but his legacy was tarnished by doping allegations.
In 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a report accusing Armstrong of doping, as a result, he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. In 2013, he confessed that he had used banned substances during his career.
In addition to his cycling career, Armstrong founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation to fight cancer and raise awareness of the disease. He also wrote "It's Not About the Bike," a book in which he talks about his experience dealing with cancer.
Today he is a public figure in the United States with his own podcast, 'The MOVE', in which he discusses cycling today along with his former sports director Johan Bruyneel and his former teammate George Hincapie.
claps 3visitors 3
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
May 12, 11:09
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- Lipo only 20" behind Jonas. Unexpected. Yeah, Tadej superb performance but proportionally, other magnificent performances were Wellens, Lipowitz and the teen Seixas.
maria2024202414-06-2025 - Remco will never beat this two in a grand tour due to his team being a lot weaker!frieders314-06-2025
- Kuss hasn't done anything since his Vuelta win!frieders314-06-2025
- Remco needs to do more if he expects to challenge the top 2. He cannot crash. He should at least drop the lesser climbersabstractengineer14-06-2025
- Absolute gush! Presumptuous nonsense and bad journalism. This is one of the world's finest riders we are talking about, and this kind of tabloid speculation has no place in this arena.maccabee14-06-2025
- Evenepoel yes, Vin, that’s not his best terrain so if Tadej pushes he can have difficulties. Jonas is a diesel but may have been fitted with a turbo lately. We will see. They have a month to fine tune and adapt to what they learn of each other here.Mistermaumau13-06-2025
- The moral to this story is, never bet against Tadej lolawp13-06-2025
- exacly! no complot at all, otherwise today he arrived away from jonas.maria2024202413-06-2025
- Well, it doesn't make sense for him to feign weakness and then destroys everyone on the climb on the first mountain stage. If he wanted to fake it, then he should fade away. Either he fades away completely to make it more convincing or don't fake it at all.
KerisVroom13-06-2025 - Yeah.... his form is terrible, he's lacking something ... bet Zonnefeld will find some excuse laterslappers6613-06-2025
Although, Yes, I agree Lance is a nasty person and drugs ran rampant in the era. To ignore this part of the culture could potentially be more damaging and will allow it to creep back in in the long run. These are reminders to the ugly past of the sport. I do not think to sweep it under the rug because the topic is uncomfortable and pisses people off the right thing to do either.
The doping discussion will always be present and we have to learn from it, understand it and prevent it from happening again. Love it or hate it, it's been the history of the sport even before Armstong took it to the next level. I'm not saying I know or have the answers. With that said, I believe the riders of today are clean and perhaps Cycling has shaken off this part of culture. We can only hope..
Ha, Lance is still among us. Listen to his pod cast, always interesting
Viva la Lance! As if no one else in professional cycling doped. Please! The Cannibal, The Badger…ya, whatever. If they made others the spectacle they did of Lance, they’d all be stripped of their winnings. Truth.
Its not just the cheating, he is a bully and a malicious human being and he is unrepentant. He is still a multimillionaire. Just stop keeping him in the news
Enough of this fraud and cheater ! He has zero relevance in todays cycling world!
As far as I'm concerned, we never need to hear about Lance Armstrong again.
Or Hincapie, Pantani, Jalabert, Museeuw, etc. They all gassed - they all cheated.