ARMSTRONG, LANCE

I want to die at a hundred years old with an American flag on my back and the star of Texas on my helmet, after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at seventy-five miles per hour. I want to cross one last finish line as my wife and ten children applaud, and then I want to lie down in a field of those famous French sunflowers and gracefully expire: the perfect contradiction to my once anticipated poignant early demise.'A slow death is not for me. I don't do anything slow, not even breathe.'In 1996 twenty-four-year-old Lance Armstrong was ranked the number one cyclist in the world. But that October the Golden Boy of American cycling was sidelined by advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. His chance for recovery was as low as twenty per cent. Armstrong embarked on the most aggressive form of chemotherapy available and underwent surgery - including brain surgery - to remove cancer that the treatments could not reach. Five months after his diagnosis he resumed training under a cloud of uncertainty. Armstrong returned to competitive cycle racing in 1998 when the United States Postal Service team invited him to join them, and from there he trained himself to victory in the 86th Tour de France in 1999.Although scarred physically and emotionally, Lance Armstrong considered his cancer a 'wake-up call', one that crystallised for him the blessings of good health, family, friends and marriage.

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