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Lance Armstrong proved that winning last year's Tour de France three years removed from a near-fatal bout with testicular cancer was no trivial footnote. Battling a more mountainous course, a deeper field that included 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and 1998 Tour winner Marco Pantani and a much bigger target on his chest, Armstrong turned in a second straight victory that, on its own merits, ranks as one of the greatest performances in cycling history. Entering the torturous 8.44-mile, 7.9-percent gradient climb of Mount Hautacam at the end of Stage 10, Armstrong turned a six-minute deficit into a four-minute advantage and never looked back. A war of words and battle of egos with Pantani cost him a couple of minutes two days later on grueling Mont Ventoux, but Armstrong's lead proved insurmountable and he rode on to become the 11th repeat champion in the Tour's 87-year history. But the tale of his resilience didn't end there. In August, while training on a country road outside Nice, Armstrong was hit by a car. Bruised and banged up, but not broken, Armstrong recovered in time to compete in the Sydney Olympics, where he took bronze in the individual time trial.
--Jamal Greene
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