Lance Armstrong was born on September 18, 1971. Lance Armstrong is an American professional road racing cyclist who is best known for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support. He rides for UCI ProTour team Team RadioShack.
In October 1996 Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer, with a tumor that had metastasized to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor. He went on to win the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005, and is the only person to win seven times, having broken the previous record of five wins, shared by Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, and Jacques Anquetil.
In 1999, Lance Armstrong was named the ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. In 2000 Lance Armstrong won the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports. In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the years 2002–2005. He received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003. Armstrong retired from racing on July 24, 2005, at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling in January 2009, and finished third in the 2009 Tour de France.
On July 21, 2009, Lance Armstrong announced that he would return to the Tour de France in 2010. RadioShack was named as the main sponsor for Armstrong's 2010 team, named Team RadioShack. Lance Armstrong made his 2010 season debut at the 2010 Tour Down Under where he finished 25th out of the 127 riders that completed the race. He made his European season debut at the 2010 Vuelta a Murcia finishing in 7th place overall. Armstrong was also set to compete in several classics such as the Milan – San Remo, Amstel Gold Race, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and the Tour of Flanders, but bouts with gastroenteritis forced his withdrawal from three of the four races. Armstrong returned to the United States in mid-April to compete in the Tour of Gila and May's Amgen Tour of California, both as preparation for the Tour de France. However, he crashed outside Visalia early in stage 5 of the Tour of California and had to withdraw from the race. He showed fine form after recovering from the Tour of California crash, placing second in the Tour of Switzerland and third in the Tour of Luxembourg.
On June 28, Lance Armstrong announced via Twitter that the 2010 edition would be his final Tour de France. Armstrong put in an impressive performance in the Tour de France prologue TT, finishing third, but was plagued by crashes in later stages that put him out of GC contention, especially a serious crash in stage 8. He rallied for the brutal Pyreneean stage 16, working as a key player in a successful break that included teammate Chris Horner. He finished his last tour in 23rd place, 39 minutes 20 seconds behind winner Alberto Contador. He was also a key rider in helping Team RadioShack win the team competition, beating Caisse D’Epargne by 9 minutes, 15 seconds.
In October, Lance Armstrong announced the end of international career after the Tour Down Under of January 2011. He stated that after January 2011 he will only race in the U.S. with the Radioshack domestic team.
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