Copyright 2006 Howard McGarity
“It’s a contest of purposeless suffering….to me of course, it’s all about living.” – Lance Armstrong comments on the grueling demands of competitive cycling, after his fourth Tour de France victory in 2002.
With the start of the Tour de Georgia last week and the approach of the Tour de France in July, I find myself checking in to see what Lance Armstrong is up to these days. I sometimes do this when Im in need of a little motivation.
Of course, you remember that all of Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour de France wins followed a cancer diagnosis in 1996. This was not just any cancer, but a highly aggressive testicular carcinoma that rapidly metastasized to his lungs and brain.
Most people would have crumbled, but based on Armstrong’s attitude toward life, his response was absolutely predictable.
After absorbing the terror of a certain death sentence, he assaulted the aggressor with the same guts and determination that he exhibits on grueling inclines in the French Alps. It is in the mountains where he typically leaves his competitors in the dust.
Armstrongs motto...