Lance Armstrong

Lance Edward Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson; Austin, Texas, September 18, 1971) is an American former professional cyclist, road cycling world champion in 1993.

Winner of the Tour de France on seven consecutive occasions (1999-2005), in 2012 he was accused of systematic doping by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), who finally decided to withdraw the seven victories for doping, in addition to ban him for life. This decision was upheld by the UCI, which annulled his cycling record beginning in 1998. Armstrong admitted to using EPO, testosterone, and blood transfusions to enhance performance during his cycling career. reactions against him from the world of sport in general.

In the year 2000 he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports.

Biography

Early Years

Armstrong was born on September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas, north of Dallas. At the age of twelve, he began his sports career with the City of Plano Swim Club. One of his first accomplishments was finishing fourth in the Texas 1500 freestyle championship. The future cyclist changed his discipline when he saw an advertisement to participate in a triathlon. He signed up and won easily.

In the 1987-1988 season, Armstrong managed to finish in first place on the US triathlon calendar in the 19 and under category. Second place went to Chann McRae, whom he later teamed up with on the US Postal Service cycling team. At 16, Armstrong became a professional triathlete. The achievements were not long in coming, with national championships in the sprint modality in 1989 and 1990, when he was only 18 and 19 years old, respectively.

Soon it became clear of his talent, the discipline in which he made the difference, was the bicycle race. Especially after winning the amateur championship in 1991 as well as winning the professional test of the Lombard Week. These achievements helped him to participate in the road modality of the Barcelona Olympic Games, where he finished in fourteenth position with the help of his teammate Bob Mionske. Following this performance, Armstrong signed his first professional contract as a cyclist with Motorola, a team with which he won his first race, the Laigueglia Trophy in Italy, where he beat his favourite, Moreno Argentin.

Lance Armstrong at the Grand Prix of Free Midi

In 1993, Armstrong won ten one-day races and lap stages. In addition, he became one of the youngest riders to win the World Road Championships, held in Oslo, where in the rain he surprised the favorites. Miguel Induráin came second. The following year, already wearing the rainbow jersey, he finished second in the San Sebastián Classic and in Liège-Bastoña-Liège.

The American increased his prestige as a classics rider after winning the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995 (where he was last three years earlier). In addition, that season he won the final stage in Limoges in the Tour de France. From that day, the image of Armstrong reaching the finish line pointing to the sky to dedicate the victory to his teammate who died on that same Tour, Fabio Casartelli, is well remembered among fans.

The following season, 1996, marked a turning point in Armstrong's life. In the first part of the calendar he managed to win the Walloon Arrow, a milestone that until then no American had achieved. However, from that performance, the American's performance began to decline. He only rode five days in the Tour de France and disappointed in his participation in the Atlanta Olympics, where he finished sixth in the time trial and twelfth in the road race.

Cancer

In October 1996, at the age of twenty-five, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer with lung and brain metastases. On his first visit to the urologist in Austin, Texas, Armstrong had a variety of symptoms, including testicular pain and coughing up blood. Immediately, the cyclist underwent emergency surgery in which he had a testicle removed and cycles of chemotherapy. After surgery, his doctor informed him that he had less than a 40% chance of survival.

Armstrong chose a chemotherapy that a priori would not reduce his lung capacity in the event of survival. This choice was ultimately considered vital to save his sports career. The cyclist received his first treatments at the Indiana University Medical Center, where Dr. Lawrence Einhorn had developed a pioneering technique in the treatment of testicular cancer. His first oncologist was Dr. Craig Nichols. Also, at that same center, his brain tumors were surgically removed. Finally, he underwent his last round of chemotherapy on December 13, 1996.

Lance was able to gradually recover until he returned to Paris-Nice in 1998, enrolled in the ranks of the US Postal team. After the prologue, he abandoned the race and thought about retiring permanently from sports competitions, but after strong reflections and with the support of his coach Chris Carmichael decided to continue; considering the World Championship that was held in Valkenburg (Holland) as the main objective.

That summer he won the Tour of Luxembourg and prepared for the Vuelta a España, where he performed at a high level, qualifying in fourth position. Although he did not win any stage, he was with the best both in the mountains and in the time trial stages, recovering his self-esteem and finding himself in great shape ahead of the World Championship, in which he was finally fourth, with victory for Oscar camenzind.

Successes in the Tour de France

Armstrong in a counter

Looking ahead to 1999, Armstrong was full of morale and his director convinced him that it was possible to reach an even higher goal: winning the Tour de France. Lance appeared at the start as a second-row favorite and eventually swept the overall standings ahead of Swiss Alex Zülle, although the latter was hurt immensely by a crash in the second stage where he lost more than six minutes.

Between 1999 and 2002, both Armstrong and his team grew (year after year, Johan Bruyneel put together an increasingly better team at the service of the American that included cyclists such as Viatcheslav Ekimov, George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Chechu Rubiera and Roberto Heras), while his main rivals, the German Jan Ullrich and the Italian Marco Pantani, winners of previous Tours, barely overshadowed him. Ullrich was second twice behind Armstrong (in 2000 and 2001), and Pantani managed to wrest a couple of stage victories from him in the 2000 Tour before leaving that competition, just when he was already plummeting both in his sporting career and in his career. Personal life. But neither troubled Armstrong in those first four Tours. Not even the revelation runner of those years, the Spanish Joseba Beloki, who was on the podium three years in a row, was able to follow in the wake of a superhuman Armstrong. Only the French Richard Virenque, the Spanish Roberto Heras and Ullrich managed to give him a little scare in the 16th stage of the 2000 Tour, where Armstrong had the only bad moment in those four years. Heras impressed him so much on that Tour that, using his checkbook, he signed him for his own team at the end of the season.

Armstrong climbing L'Alpe d'Huez in 2001.

And in 2003, the Texan arrived at the Centennial Tour edition with his sights set on equaling Miguel Induráin's mark of five consecutive Tours. And despite the fact that a revived Jan Ullrich came to put him against the ropes, he did it. That year was the only one in which Armstrong showed some weakness, a weakness that his main rivals took advantage of to get close to him. Ullrich finished 2nd overall by just one minute, as well as winning a time trial stage from him by more than 1:30 minutes; Joseba Beloki also attacked him like never before, until the unfortunate accident he suffered in the stage that ended in Gap, which was won by Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov, ultimately third in Paris. Even his previous domestique, fellow countryman Tyler Hamilton, attacked him at some stage.

In 2004 Armstrong aspired to make his legend bigger, and he did so more questioned than ever, after the poor performance he had shown during his preparation for the Tour. But the American cyclist surprised again with overwhelming authority, winning 5 stages and finishing more than six minutes behind the second, the German Andreas Klöden. Jan Ullrich could only be fourth, while the rest of the favorites on paper dropped out.

And in 2005 he managed to win the gala round for the seventh time. With his new team, the Discovery Channel, heir to the US Postal, won the 2005 Tour de France, this time over the Italian Ivan Basso, while Ullrich, who had an accident the day before starting, was third.

Retreat

On April 18, 2005, he had announced at a press conference in Georgia that he was retiring in July, after the Tour, despite having another year on his contract with his team, the Discovery Channel. After his seventh consecutive victory in the French round, Armstrong retired as an undefeated champion.

In 2006 Armstrong ran the New York marathon to raise funds for the fight against cancer, with a time of 2 hours 59 minutes 37 seconds, about 50 minutes behind the winner, Brazilian Marilson Gomes dos Santos (2h09:58).

Return to cycling

On September 8, 2008, Armstrong announced his return to professional cycling in 2009, with the aim of promoting the fight against cancer. On September 24, 2008, he announced the date of his return, January 18 2009 in the Down-Under of Australia, with the Astana team directed by Johan Bruyneel and in which Alberto Contador was a member. Later, on December 1, at the concentration of his team, Astana, he announced that he would ride the 2009 Tour de France. In March 2009, as a prelude to the Giro d'Italia, Armstrong participated in the Tour of Castilla y León, in where he had to retire in the first stage after suffering a fall on his way through Antigüedad (Palencia), fracturing his clavicle. On the occasion of the accident, a monument was erected in the small town of Palencia.

Monument to Armstrong in the place where the fall occurred where the collarbone was fractured, in its passage through Antiquity (Palencia).

He finished the Giro d'Italia in 11th place, which he runs in preparation for the Tour de France, in which he would finish third and in which he won the team time trial of the fourth stage together with his Astana teammates and the final general classification by teams.

Before the end of the 2009 Tour, he announced that he would create in 2010, together with Johan Bruyneel, a new team sponsored by RadioShack Corporation, Team RadioShack. On June 28, Armstrong announced via Twitter that the 2010 edition would be his last Tour de France. Armstrong put in an outstanding performance in the Tour prologue time trial, finishing fourth, but suffered crashes in later stages that left him out of the general classification, most notably, a serious crash on stage 8. He recovered for stage 16 in the Pyrenees, being one of the escapees of the day; escape that would reach the finish line, although neither Lance nor his teammate, Chris Horner, were the winners. He finished the Tour in 23rd place, 39 minutes and 20 seconds behind the winner, Alberto Contador (Contador would be dispossessed of the title some time later). Also, he was an important runner in helping the RadioShack team win the team classification, beating Caisse d'Epargne by 9 minutes and 15 seconds.

At the beginning of 2011, he stated that the last prestigious race in which he would participate would be the 2011 Tour Down Under, since after that he would dedicate himself exclusively to second level races in the United States. In 2011 he announced his final retirement.

Doping accusations

Armstrong was accused of doping practices on several occasions. In 2001, he came under fire for working with controversial trainer and doctor Michele Ferrari. One of his critics was Greg LeMond (Armstrong's compatriot and triple Tour champion), who expressed disappointment after hearing the news that Armstrong himself had admitted to working with Ferrari. This led to a feud between the two with accusations on both sides, while then Tour organizer Jean-Marie Leblanc confessed that "he was not happy"; that the names of Armstrong and Ferrari "were mixed up." he felt "zero tolerance for someone convicted of using or facilitating doping drugs" despite the fact that during their collaboration "he had never suggested, prescribed or provided her with any drugs," Ferrari was later acquitted of all charges by an Italian appeals court.

Lance Armstrong in an exhibition counter

In 2004, journalists Pierre Ballester and David Walsh published in a book that Armstrong had used doping substances (L. A. Confidentiel - Les secrets de Lance Armstrong). The work contained the testimony of the runner's masseuse Emma O'Reilly, who assured that the cyclist asked her to throw away used syringes and requested makeup to hide the marks of the needles on her arms. Another interviewee in the book, Steve Swarts, commented that he and other Motorola team riders, including Armstrong, had begun to resort to doping in 1995, an accusation denied by other members of the squad. These parts of the book were in turn reproduced in June in The Sunday Times. Armstrong sued the newspaper for defamation. The case was resolved with an out-of-court agreement that determined that the article "contained accusations of guilt but without giving reasons to justify" the claims. Finally, the newspaper's lawyers stated that "The Sunday Times has confirmed to Mr. Armstrong that it had never been his intention to try to accuse him of having used doping substances and that, therefore, he offered his sincere apologies" #34;.

In March 2005, Mike Anderson filed a complaint in Travis County District Court, Texas, after leaving Armstrong in November 2004. Anderson worked for the cyclist for two years as a personal assistant. In his letter, the former employee claimed to have found in February 2004, in the bathroom of Lance Armstrong's home in Spain, in Gerona, a box with the title "androsterine", an anabolic steroid The cyclist denied the accusations. Finally, the athlete and his former assistant resolved the case with an out-of-court agreement. The terms of the agreement were not made public.

On the other hand, he was confronted on many occasions with the newspaper L'Equipe. The first confrontation arose as a result of accusations of doping, in his reappearance after cancer, in the 1999 Tour that Armstrong ended up winning. This and other subsequent confrontations caused rivers of ink to flow in France, but above all an investigation after Lance's withdrawal, which was carried out in 2006, by the newspaper L'Equipe, in in which a journalist from said newspaper claimed that traces of the EPO substance were allegedly found in Lance Armstrong's urine samples taken in 1999, which were impossible to detect at that time. These remains were assumed since the code number of sample B, which contained the urine sample, had not been disclosed. Armstrong defended himself by attributing the news to a certain envy on the part of the French, and in particular the newspaper L'Equipe.

Armstrong after his reopening at the Giro de Italia 2009, with the Astana leotard.

In June 2006, the International Cycling Union (UCI) reiterated the validity of the "Vrijman report", which exonerated Lance Armstrong, arguing that "the analyzes carried out on the samples of urine were carried out incorrectly and far from scientific criteria", and that it was "totally irresponsible" hold that they "constitute proof of something". The UCI, in addition to accepting the Vrijman report, confirming Armstrong's innocence, accused WADA of having provided confidential information to the sports newspaper L'Équipe.

In June 2006, the French newspaper Le Monde published the allegations against Armstrong's former partner Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy. The couple assured that the cyclist had admitted using doping substances just after undergoing surgery during his treatment to beat cancer, in 1996. The couple's statements were made under oath during the arbitration judicial proceeding initiated by Lance Armstrong against the insurance company SCA Promotions, which refused to pay him the five million dollar premium for his victory in the 2004 Tour, considering that there were well-founded suspicions of doping.[3] Andreu's wife reported: & # 34; The doctor began to ask him banal questions and, suddenly, he blurted out: Has he taken doping products? And she answered yes. She asked him which ones and Lance replied: EPO, growth hormones, cortisone, steroids and testosterone. Her husband confirmed the testimony. "I don't know how the doctor asked the question, but the answer was that he had taken EPO, testosterone...". Armstrong contended that Betsy Andreu could have been mistaken for a possible mention of post-op treatment, which included steroids and EPO to counteract some of the effects of the chemotherapy. The Andreu's account was not supported by any of the other eight people present, including Armstrong's doctor Craig Nichols, However, and according to Greg LeMond, confronted with Armstrong, there is a recorded conversation with Stephanie McIlvain, the cyclist's contact with Oakley, one of his sponsors, who says: "I was in that room and I heard it." McIlvain denied everything in her testimony under oath.

Loss of the 7 Tours and the Olympic medal

In early 2012, a process began that culminated in the annulment of all results achieved by Armstrong from August 1, 1998 onwards, including a lifetime ban from playing professional sports:

• In February 2012, he was declared innocent of the charges by Los Angeles General Prosecutors. In addition, no doping charges will be filed against you.

• In June 2012, he was formally charged with continued doping and threatened to withdraw his 7 Tours from France. USADA filed 15 pages of charges against the U.S. athlete including allegations that Armstrong used the EPO hormone, blood transfusions, testosterone and corticoids between 1998 and 2011.

• On August 24, 2012, the U.S. Antidoping Agency. The United States (USADA) announces that it will propose the dispossession of all its titles since August 1998, including the seven Tours of France. The statement occurs after the Texan cyclist reported his intention not to appeal the charges against him.

• On October 10, 2012, the USADA presented to the ICU the report "reasoned decision", which formally accused Armstrong and the US Postal team of using "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping system that sport has never seen." The report of more than 1000 pages contains the statements of 26 people, including 11 former Armstrong partners: Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, David Zabriskie, Levi Leipheimer, Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton and Stephen Swart, who claimed that the team performed irregular practices, which were professionally designed to ensure their use. According to this same report, the doctors who supported the plot were Michele Ferrari, Luis García del Moral and José Martí. The cyclists who were still active (Vande Velde, Zabriskie, Leipheimer and Danielson) were suspended for 6 months and the sports results were also cancelled. On the contrary, José Luis "Chechu" Rubiera in press statements claimed that he never saw Armstrong dope in the five years they agreed on the team. The Australian Patrick Jonker (who was at US Postal in 2000) said he hadn't doubled and not all team cyclists did.

• On October 22, 2012, ICU made the penalty for life effective and dispossessed it of its seven titles, thus accepting the proposal of the US agency.

• On 17 January 2013, Armstrong publicly admitted in an interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey to have used doping methods in the seven Tours he won. The International Olympic Committee disqualified it from its third position at the counter-reloj of the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000 and called for the return of the bronze medal and the Olympic diploma.

• On September 12, 2013, Armstrong returned the Olympic medal.

Reactions

After the interview with Oprah aired, the world of sports and entertainment reacted almost immediately, launching strong criticism of the American cyclist.

• Alberto Contador (cyclist): "There has already been a lot of talk about that interview, but what he said did not surprise anyone. It is hard for the image of cycling, but I stay with what can be good: perhaps so we can close this chapter of that decade and focus on the present and future of this beautiful sport. "

• Novak Djokovic (tenist): "It would be ridiculous for you to deny the evidence as there were thousands of tests. It's a shame for sport to have a sportsman like Armstrong. He cheated on the sport. He has deceived many people all over the world with his career, with his story. It's ridiculous to deny evidence after thousands of tests, you have to withdraw all the titles. He deserves to suffer. I've lost confidence in cycling just like it's happened to a lot of people. I followed him before. All the great champions. But there have been so many scandals already. "

• Roger Federer: "What a sad story. I don't know what to say. It just makes me sad to see someone did something like that for so long. He has obviously damaged his sport to a large extent, even though he helped him at first. But now because of the burden we live with, it has also affected other sports. I guess all I needed was to see the first minutes of the interview, the rest I don't care. Unfortunately, I think that now many people look at and it's like, well, if someone so big (he's been cheating), what about everyone else in any other sport? To be honest, this story is very sad. "

• Michael Llodra (tenist): "It is always disappointing to discover that a sportsman was doping, but especially if it is an icon of international sport. It's a shame because he made many children dream. He always had noble words, but now we know that that was just words. "

Honours of Prizes

Lance Armstrong in 2010.

1992

• G. P. de Atlanta
• 1 stage of the Vuelta to Galicia

1993

• Trofeo Laigueglia
• 1 stage Tour de France
• United States Championship on Route
• World Championship on Route

1995

• DuPont Tour, plus 5 stages
• 1 stage of Paris-Niza
• San Sebastian Classic
• 1 stage Tour de France
• 3.o at the United States Championship on Route

1996

• Flecha Valona
• DuPont Tour, plus 5 stages

1998

• Tour de Luxembourg, plus 1 stage
• Tour de Rhénanie-Palatinat
• Classic Cascade

Results

Grand Tours and Championships

Race		1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
	Giro de Italia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11.	-	-
	Tour de France	-	Ab.	Ab.	36.	Ab.	-	-	1.o	1.o	1.o	1.o	1.o	1.o	1.o	-	-	-	3.o	23.	-
	Return to Spain	-	-	-	-	-	-	4.o	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
JJ. OO. (Ruta)		14.o	Not disputed			12.	Not disputed			13.	Not disputed			-	Not disputed			-	Not disputed
JJ. OO. (CRI)		-				6.o				3.o				-				-
World on Route		Ab.	1.o	7.	-	-	-	4.o	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Global Contrary		X	X	-	-	-	-	4.o	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
USA. UU. on Route		-	1.o	-	3.o	-	-	32.o	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Minor turns

—: does not participate
Ab.: abandons
X.º or years in gray: Results annulled due to the doping sanction issued by USADA on August 22, 2012.

Teams

• Motorola (1992-1996)
• Cofidis (1997)
• US Postal/Discovery Channel (1998-2005)
  • US Postal Service (1998-2002)
  • US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor (2003-2004)
  • Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (2005)
• Astana (2009)
• RadioShack (2010-2011)

Acknowledgments

• Gold Bike (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004)
• 2.o in the Gold Bike (2002 and 2005)
• 3.o en la Bicicleta de Oro (1998)
• Prince of Asturias Sports Award (2000)

Predecessor: Steffi Graf GermanyGermany

14.o Prince of Asturias Sports Award 2000

Successor: Manel Estiarte SpainSpain

Works

• My return to life
• Live every second