Lance Armstrong Goes Out in Style

Armstrong Goes Out in Style
Bicycling: Tour De France 2005 - Armstrong Goes Out in Style
















PARIS (July 24) - One last time, "The Star-Spangled Banner" rang out over the Champs-Elysees in honor of Lance Armstrong. One last time, on the podium against the backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe, the cancer survivor who became the greatest cyclist in Tour de France history slipped into the leader's yellow jersey Sunday.

This time, it was the winner's jersey, for an unprecedented seventh consecutive year in the world's most grueling race.

He held his yellow cap over his heart as the American anthem played, and his twin 3-year-old daughters, Grace and Isabelle, wore matching yellow dresses. "Vive le Tour! Forever," Armstrong said. It was the end of Armstrong's amazing career, and in retiring a winner he achieved a rare feat in sports - going out on top. He said his decision was final and that he walks away with no regrets. "I'm finished," Armstrong told a motorcycle-borne TV reporter as he rode a victory lap of the Champs-Elysees, waving to the crowds and accompanied by another rider waving the Stars and Stripes.

With the pavement slick from rain, and Armstrong comfortably ahead, he was declared the winner with 30 miles to go. The rare decision was made rather than risk having a mad dash to the finish in treacherous conditions. Riders were still racing at the time, with eight laps of the Champs-Elysees to complete, and the stage competition continued. Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan eventually won the final stage, with Armstrong finishing safely in the pack to win the Tour by 4 minutes, 40 seconds over Ivan Basso of Italy. The 1997 Tour winner, Jan Ullrich, was third, 6:21 back.

Armstrong's 5-year-old son, Luke, delivered a different message. "Daddy, can we go home and play?" the boy whispered to him as he stepped off the podium. Armstrong choked up on the podium and rock star girlfriend Sheryl Crow, wearing a yellow halter top, cried during the ceremony. "This is the way he wanted to finish his career, so it's very emotional," she said.

At the end of th race Armstrong mentioned Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi as personal inspirations. "Those are guys that you look up to you, guys that have been at the top of their game for a long time," he said. As for his accomplishments, he said, "I can't be in charge of dictating what it says or how you remember it. "In five, 10, 15, 20 years, we'll see what the legacy is. But I think we did come along and revolutionize the cycling part, the training part, the equipment part. We're fanatics." Armstrong's last ride as a professional - the closing 89.8-mile 21st stage into Paris from Corbeil-Essonnes south of the capital - was not without incident. Three of his teammates slipped and crashed on the road coming around a bend just before they crossed the River Seine. Armstrong, right behind them, braked and skidded into the fallen riders, using his right foot to steady himself and stay on the bike. His teammates, wearing special shirts with a band of yellow on right shoulder, recovered and led him up the Champs-Elysees at the front of the pack.

Armstrong's departure begins a new era for the 102-year-old Tour, with no clear successor. His riding and his inspiring comeback from testicular cancer attracted new fans - especially in the United States - to the race, as much a part of French summers as sun cream, forest fires and traffic jams down to the Cote d'Azur. Millions turned out each year, cheering, picnicking and sipping wine by the side of the road, to watch Armstrong flash past in the yellow jersey, the famed "maillot jaune." Cancer survivors, autograph hunters and admirers pushed, shoved and yelled "Lance! Lance!" outside his bus in the mornings for a smile, a signature or a just word from the champion. Some spectators would shout obscenities or "Dope!" To some, his comeback from cancer and his uphill bursts of speed that left rivals gasping in the Alps and Pyrenees were too good to be true. Armstrong insisted that he simply trained, worked and prepared harder than anyone. He was drug-tested hundreds of times, in and out of competition, but was never found to have committed any infractions.

Armstrong came into this Tour saying he had a dual objective - winning the race and the hearts of French fans. He was more relaxed, forthcoming and talkative than last year, when the pressure was on to be the first six-time winner. Some fans hung the Stars and Stripes on barriers that lined the Champs-Elysees on Sunday. Around France, some also urged Armstrong to go for an eighth win next year- holding up placards and daubing their appeals in paint on the road. Armstrong, however, wanted to go out on top -

AS YOU CAN SEE HE DID JUST THAT!!

GO LANCE!!