Hero of the moment: cycling champion Lance Armstrong lives life for today - Cover Story

Better Nutrition, March, 2003 by Mark Riedy

Over Lance Armstrong's shoulder, the mile-long Champs-Elysees stretched like an inverted exclamation point topped with the iconic Arc de Triomphe. It was July 28, 2002, and he was standing on a grand podium after winning the Tour de France--the world's most arduous and prestigious bicycle race--for a record fourth consecutive year. Nearly a million people were on the scene that day, and while many consistently cheered for him, others did not.

If Armstrong has not yet won over the French--who haven't produced a homegrown winner in their own race since 1985--the Austin, Texas, native has finally won the hearts of his fellow Americans. In 2002 he was named both Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year and the Associated Press' Male Athlete of the Year. But regardless of his burgeoning popularity, his best and most reliable fans are still Kristin, his wife of five years, and their three children--four-year-old Luke, and twin sisters Isabelle Rose and Grace Elizabeth, who will both be two this year.

Close behind in their adulation are cancer patients and their friends and families nationwide.

survival story

By now, Armstrong's own cancer story is well known, especially since the publication of his book titled It's Not About the Bike.

In 1996, after he contracted testicular cancer, which eventually spread to his lungs and brain, doctors gave Armstrong only a 60 percent chance to survive. But on October 2, 1997, exactly one year after his original diagnosis and exhaustive chemotherapy, doctors at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis told Armstrong that he had officially joined the grateful ranks of the world's cancer survivors.

So as important as victory in the three-week, 1,980-mile 2002 Tour de France was for the 31-year-old athlete, his amazing cycling feats are lust part of a much larger world that includes sponsor commitments, time spent with his family and the support he freely gives to people--most of them strangers--who suffer cancer.

Indeed, hardly a day goes by when Armstrong doesn't visit, write or email someone battling the disease. He receives 300 pieces of mail a month from cancer patients, and he tries to respond to them all.

"I can only contribute by being myself, trying to continue to win the biggest bike race in the world and by being available to help people when they need support," Armstrong told BN.

charitable causes

To that end, he started the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing hope and help to cancer patients and those around them, in January 1997, just one month after leaving the hospital. The cornerstone of Armstrong's new foundation is the annual Ride for the Roses Weekend, a fundraiser capped off with a bike tour through central Texas. The foundation struck a chord with people around the world. Last year it raised nearly $3 million during the Ride for the Roses Weekend alone.

Wife, Kristin, was there during Armstrong's darkest days, when he had to confront the real possibility of dying, and now, she, too, feels an obligation to give back to others. Although the cancer left Armstrong sterile, the couple was able to conceive their three children through invitro fertilization. Now Kristin serves on the board of Fertile Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to patients whose cancer treatments present a risk of infertility.

"We all know so many people who are affected by cancer, and when you're trying to be supportive of your friends or your family, you can feel so helpless," she said in a recent interview.

Bicycle racing is often a matter of breaking the will of your opponents. Anyone wanting an inside look at Armstrong's will and work ethic need only check the calendar on his PDA. During a single week last December, his schedule included a trip to Washington, DC, to meet with President Bush's panel on cancer, a stop in New York City to accept Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year award, a visit to a hospital in Dallas that specializes in cancer treatment, a stint at a training camp with his United States Postal Service bicycling team and a few much-needed days of vacation in Baja, Mexico, with his family and the family of Craig Nichols, MD--one of the doctors who saved his life.

natural prodigy

Tour victories may be the crowning achievement of Armstrong's career, but his road to fame started with much more humble aspirations. In his mid-teen years, Armstrong, perhaps focusing the anger that he felt over not having a strong father figure in his life, put all his energy into the then growing sport of triathlon. The prodigy turned professional at the age of 16 and, not long after, won multiple races across the country. But he earned only an estimated $20,000 a year, and drove an admittedly "cheesy" Camaro IROC Z that he bought with the help of a local sponsor. (He now owns a Mercedes 500 SL.)

Armstrong then turned to professional cycling--which for the best riders is quite lucrative--and his ascent to the top was appropriately fast. At age 21, in just his second full season as a professional, he won the world road racing championship in Oslo, Norway. Armstrong was the youngest rider ever to win the race, which was first held in 1927. True to the brash reputation he had acquired among his peers and the cycling press, Armstrong nearly refused an audience with the king of Norway immediately following his victory when he was told that he would not be allowed to bring his mother with him. In the end, you better believe that Linda, Armstrong's mother, got to meet the king.