Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

It started in the early 1990’s. In 1992 Lance Armstrong turned pro for the American Motorola Cycling Team. His first race was the San Sebastian classic where he finished dead last in the rain. In 1993 Lance Armstrong became world champion in Oslo Norway at the very young age of 23.

Armstrong was considered a huge talent, but not a Tour De France winner. Lance had no hopes of winning a three week Tour and concentrated on one day classics. He actually won Fleche Wallone a very difficult hilly Belgian semi-classic and came close to winning Liege-Bastongne-Liege.

Then as we all know, cancer hit. Many in the cycling world thought that was the end of a great career. Lance struggled through and the diagnosis was much worse than initially thought. Cancer spread through to his lungs and brain. All of this seems almost cliche because it has been repeated in all corners of media when they talk about Lance Armstrong, but it is a very powerful story.

When Lance came back to cycling in 1998 he was on a new team in the US Postal Service. They were trying to carry the tradition of American cycling from Motorola, but they were based on the old Subaru-Montgomery team for which Lance rode as an amateur. It was an old and new team for Lance, but they decided to give the guy a chance. The comeback did not start well as he raced in the Ruta del Sol. Completeing the Ruta would have been an amazing story. Cancer survivor, near death, comes back and races. Great story. No one ever expected what we have today.

Thanks Lance for the great memories.