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Life goes on Armstrong hopes to bring fresh image to cycling
Posted: Saturday July 03, 1999 03:48 PM
LE-PUY-DU-FOU, France (Reuters) -- Lance Armstrong, the first yellow jersey holder in the 1999 Tour de France, hopes to become an example both as a human being and as a rider. For the first American since Greg LeMond to lead the world's best known cycling race owes his return to the highest level to doctors. But his case has nothing to do with drugs. It is the story of a man cured almost by miracle from the cancer which might have ended his life, let alone his career, two years ago. "I can only take credit from what I did as a rider," Armstrong, an unexpected world champion in 1993, said. "I cannot take credit for the work made by my doctors, they were the ones who discovered the cure and cured me," he added after winning the Tour prologue in Le-Puy-du-Fou on Saturday. "This could be a fantastic example for all cancer survivors. For life goes on. "It is possible to return to a normal professional life. Maybe I can prove that it is possible to be better than you were before." Oddly enough, Armstrong's story has a lot in common with LeMond's as the three-times Tour winner also returned a better rider in 1989 after a hunting accident which nearly took his life. "I think I'm a better bike rider now and certainly I'm a better human being," Armstrong, leader of the U.S. Postal team, said. Armstrong was not on the Tour last year when the race sank into chaos because of a major drug scandal. He was slowly recovering from his cancer and already showing signs that he was on the way back by eventually finishing fourth in the Vuelta and later in both road and time-trial world championships. Armstrong hoped his victory on Saturday could also be the symbol of a new, cleaner sport. "I'm here to see cycling renew itself and to reassure the public that we're champions, that we're humans," he said. "The Tour has been around for 96 years, not for bad reasons but for good reasons." The 27-year-old Texan, who has always dismissed suggestions that his cancer might have been linked to drug taking, said riders were doing a lot to fight the plague of drugs. "We can only do so much. We are tested as much as possible. But enough is enough. At some point it has to stop and we all must fall in love again with the sport of cycling," he said.
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