Lance Armstrong Ends His International Cycling Career

Lance Armstrong ends his international cycling career when he completed the final stage of the Tour Down Under. Prior to his announcement on Sunday it had been understood that Armstrong’s look at the Tour de France in July was his last occurrence, although there have to be some of promotional appearances in races within the US.After the completion of the career he examined,”I’m excited to be competing in my last professional ride outside the US at the Santos Tour Down Under.”"It will be my third time to the event, and I’m sure I will enjoy it as much as I have the first two times.”Lance Armstrong is professional road racing cyclist who is famous for winning the Tour de France, a record seven consecutive times, even once having survived testicular cancer. Armstrong had testicular cancer and lesions on the brain and was survive from these horrible diseases with chemotherapy, faith, and his ability to race. Due to his disease of cancer, he established the foundation of cancer and now he is the chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer analysis and support.Before his cancer treatment, Armstrong had won two Tour de France stages in 1993 and 1996. In 1993, he won the 8th stage and in 1995 he took stage 18 where his team mate Fabio Casartelli was crashed and died on stage 15. After becoming ill Armstrong dropped out of the 1996 Tour on the 7th stage.On October 2, 1996, he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer, this cancer had spread to his abdomen, lungs, and brain and doctors thought that he had on one year to live. He was operated to remove the affected testicle and the lesions on his brain, and then he had treatment for the cancer cells in the abdomen and in the lungs by chemotherapy. Despite of all these facts, he recovered and came back to bike racing. He signed a contract with U.S Portal Service racing team after being drop from the Cofidis.He won the Tour of Luxembourg, the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfarht in Germany, and the Cascade Classic in Oregon, and then came in second place at First Union International. Then he won the Tour de France in 1999. It would be the first of three consecutive wins in this race. In 2000 he won a bronze medal in a time trial at the Olympic Games in the city Sydney, Australia.In 2000, Lance Amstrong had more challenges when Ullrich and Pantani returned in cycling.Lance ended the race in 6 minutes and 2 seconds over Ullrich, the race began with six years rivalry between Lance and Ullrich. In 2001, Armstrong again took top position, beating Ullrich by 6 minutes 44 seconds. In 2002, Ulrich faced the suspension due to which he did not participate and Armstrong won by seven minutes over Joseba Beloki. In 2003, he again finished the race 1:01 ahead of Ullrich, following the unusual set of circumstances including a stomach illness. In 2005, he finished 4:40 ahead of Ivan Basso. In addition, he has won 22 individual stages from 1993 to 2005. He has also won the 11 time trials in the Tour de France.In his 2004 Armstrong won five stages, plus the team time trial (TTT) with his U.S. Postal Service “Blue Train”. In 2005 he won only one individual stage, the final individual time trial. He ran strong from the beginning of the tour, but beaten from his major competitor, Jan Ullrich on the road only by two seconds. On July 24, 2005, Armstrong officially announced his retirement from professional cycling after his 7th consecutive Tour de France win, but he announced on September 9, 2008 that he would return to cycling with a new spirit to participate in the 2009 Tour de France and 2010.Conclusion:Armstrong can be contemplated as a hero for overcoming testicular cancer and establishing the Lance Armstrong Foundation to help and treat the other cancer patients. His life is a complete guide that gives lesson to never give up and keep struggling for the destination. Lance always says, “I decided I was going to win.”