Lance Armstrong – one of a kind

[underpants]

http://sify.com/sports/columns/fullstory.php?id=13902765

In an age when the champions seem to get younger and taste success when barely out of their nappies, three 30-plus sportsmen turned in astonishing performances over the weekend to underline the belief that it is the mind and not age that matters in sports.




We saw "King of Cycling" Lance Armstrong, in Discovery Channel colours, winning his seventh Tour de France title in Paris while at Lord’s, London, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne bowled Australia to victory against England in the first Ashes Test match.

For me, Armstrong is the ultimate champion and his is a saga of a man who fought the odds, refused to give in to life-threatening adversity and finally pedaled some 3,500 Kms in 21 days for seven consecutive years, thus setting a record that is unlikely to be matched, leave alone bettered for generations to come.

For all the speculation, Armstrong kept his composure and preferred to answer his critics in the best possible manner, that was to win the Tour. Throughout his career, Armstrong had to ward off talk about him taking recourse to performance-enhancing drugs. He passed hundreds of doping tests without testing positive. In fact, he often lamented that cycling as a sport was being tainted by several competitors who opted for a shortcut to success and were caught in the doping net.

Yes, Lance Armstrong deserves all the accolades, for his achievement was due to him "busting my ass for six hours a day". It is time to put his feet up and enjoy the hearth with his kids riding his lap. But the Tour will never be the same.

[underpants]

1. Kick

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