Six appeal

How much longer can Armstrong keep winning?

Lance Armstrong has worn the yellow jersey on the Champs-Elysees for the last five years. AP

PARIS (AP) -- The bad news for his rivals is that Lance Armstrong is now really fired up. Not satiated by a record-tying fifth Tour de France crown, the steely Texan says the skin-of-his-teeth way in which he won is already motivation to try harder next year.

Triumphant over crashes, illness, hard-charging rivals and plain old bad luck, Armstrong sipped champagne in the saddle Sunday as he coasted to the cobblestoned Champs-Elysees in Paris to collect his winner's trophy and a place in cycling legend.

But it was close. Only the day earlier, in a rain-soaked time trial, did the usually dominant champion finally seal his win. For Armstrong, used to winning the Tour by comfortable margins, his 61-second victory over archrival Jan Ullrich was just not good enough.

"The other years I won by six, seven minutes. I think it makes it more exciting and sets up an attempt for number six," he said.

"I love cycling, I love my job and I will be back," he added. "In many ways, I'm coming back to hopefully return to a level that I had for the first four because this year was not acceptable."

Maybe not acceptable to the perfectionist Armstrong. But the country that takes the most pride in the Tour de France thought it was good enough.

Armstrong: Tour easy compared to cancer battle PARIS (AP) -- His life-and-death battle with cancer may be one of the secrets of his success, U.S. cycling star Lance Armstrong said Monday, a day after winning his record-tying fifth consecutive Tour de France crown. Armstrong told a gathering of cancer specialists and survivors of the disease that winning the 23-day, 3,427.5-kilometer (2,125-mile) clockwise race around France was easy compared to the agony of lying sick in a hospital bed, fighting a devastating illness. "Drawing on that experience helps, and is perhaps one of the secrets of winning the Tour," Armstrong said. "It is an honor to win the Tour as a cancer survivor." Armstrong spoke at a press conference held before an advisory group of cancer specialists and survivors to U.S. President George W. Bush. Armstrong was treated in 1996 for testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. He returned to competition and won the first of five consecutive Tour titles in 1999. He has used his celebrity to help raise money for cancer research and survivors. LaSalle D. Leffall, a physician and chairman of the cancer advisory panel, said that while the medical community is beginning to view cancer as a chronic disease that can be managed in the long term, Europeans tend to consider a cancer diagnosis "a death sentence." "But we need to celebrate living beyond cancer," he said. "Those who are diagnosed with the disease should no longer bear the stigma of fatality." Around the world, 22.4 million people either have or have had the disease.

"Unforgettable" read the front page headline in the daily Le Parisien. "Into Legend" read the headline on the widely read sports daily L'Equipe.

In an interview with L'Equipe, the seemingly invincible Armstrong gave voice to the fears that tracked him through this year's Tour.

"No one likes stress and I don't want to relive a Tour like that one," he said. "I was so afraid this year because nothing happened as planned."

Armstrong's problems were cumulative and almost overwhelmed him. He had stomach flu so badly before the Tour he nearly didn't make the flight to France. He was bruised in a crash in the second day. He lost 5 kilograms (11 pounds) through dehydration riding a time trial in a heat wave and struggled up the Tour's most daunting climb, the 2,645-meter (8,675-feet) Col du Galibier, with a faulty back brake rubbing against the wheel.

"It takes a little bit out of you with the brake on," Armstrong noted sarcastically. "Those sort of problems just kept happening."

His rivals took notice, sensing that after four years of eating his dust, the indomitable Armstrong, cancer survivor, cycling's hard man, was ready to fall. Armstrong, however, was down but not out.

His turning point came last Monday on a mist-shrouded 13.4-kilometer (8.3-mile) ascent to the Pyrenean ski station of Luz-Ardiden, one of the Tour's hardest climbs. Typically for this drama-packed Tour, Armstrong fell when a spectator's outstretched bag hooked his handlebars. But he got back up and rode like a man possessed to roar past Ullrich, who in a gesture of sportsmanship waited for him to get back on his bike.

"At the start of the climb I knew that that was where I needed to win the Tour," said Armstrong. "At the finish I was confident that that was enough."

Ullrich came into the Tour from two knee operations, a ban for using recreational drugs, and the collapse of his Team Coast. He's already thinking about next year.

"I delivered one of my best races ever. This time I was very close to Armstrong. The next time, without Coast-chaos, I will be even better prepared," said the 29-year-old German who has won just once, in 1997, and finished five-times runner-up.

Perhaps the greatest damage done was to Armstrong's aura of invincibility. Next year, to overcome rivals who saw him struggle, Armstrong will need to prove that this Tour was just a blip and that he's back and better than ever.

"Every year it gets more difficult, and he'll face some tough rivals," said Miguel Indurain, before Armstrong the only rider to win five straight Tours.

Armstrong isn't saying how much longer he'll race beyond 2004, when he'll be 32. He says that to win a Tour, "I don't think 32 or 33 is too old, even 34." But he also hopes to quit undefeated.

"That's a dream," he said. "I hope I can just know the moment when it's time to walk away. I've been here for 11 or 12 years now, so my time is limited. I know that. But I don't plan on doing a farewell year, a farewell Tour. I'd like to go out on top but I don't know when that is."

Armstrong's winning margin -- just 61 seconds over Ullrich -- was his smallest ever. But he's hardly a spent force. Over the 23-day, 3,427.5-kilometer (2,125-mile) clockwise slog around France, his average speed was 40.94 kilometers (25.38 miles) per hour -- breaking his own record set in 1999 as the fastest in Tour history.

But as the clock ticks, rivals are lining up to replace him.

"The only way to beat Armstrong is to hope that his form diminishes. It can only happen with time. Up to now, he has shown there's no room for anybody else," said Italian Ivan Basso, who finished seventh. "Our tactic is to stay strong and wait."

 

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