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In 1999, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France amid whispers that the field was
weak as a result of a drug scandal that had plagued the event. To put any
doubters in their place, Armstrong came back in 2000 for a second consecutive
victory in an event in which the course was more difficult, the weather
unseasonably cold and the competition stiff. Armstrong's back-to-back Tour wins
are impressive enough -- riders cycle more than 2,000 miles in 23 days,
sometimes up the sides of mountains with more than an 8 percent grade -- but given the
fact that he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer in 1996 and given
less than a 40 percent chance of survival, it's practically superhuman, let
alone awe-inspiring. Even his rivals were impressed. "For the second year,
Armstrong has shown that he was the strongest in the mountains, and strongest in
the time trial," said Christophe Moreau, who finished fourth in the 2000
race. "He's the real boss of the Tour; a real champion." While mere
mortals might take the rest of the year off after undertaking such a grueling
challenge, Armstrong -- who turned 29 in September -- competed in the Sydney
Olympics, taking bronze in the individual time
trial.
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