Armstrong before the 2009 Tour Down Under
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Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Lance Edward Armstrong | ||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Le Boss Big Tex | ||||||||||||||||||
Born | Lance Edward Gunderson September 18, 1971 Plano, Texas, U.S. |
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Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 75 kg (165 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||
Team information | |||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | Road | ||||||||||||||||||
Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||||||
Rider type | All-rounder | ||||||||||||||||||
Amateur team(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
1990–1991 | Subaru–Montgomery | ||||||||||||||||||
1991 | US National Team | ||||||||||||||||||
Professional team(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
1992–1996 | Motorola | ||||||||||||||||||
1997 | Cofidis | ||||||||||||||||||
1998–2005 | U.S. Postal Service | ||||||||||||||||||
2009 | Astana | ||||||||||||||||||
2010–2011 | Team RadioShack | ||||||||||||||||||
Major wins | |||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Lance Edward Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson, September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Armstrong had won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, before he was banned for life and all his results going back to August 1998 were voided, as a result of long-term doping offenses.
At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team. He had notable success between 1993 and 1996, including the World Championship in 1993, Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Tour DuPont in 1995 and 1996, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France.
In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer. After his recovery, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now the Livestrong Foundation) to assist other cancer survivors.
Returning to cycling in 1998, he was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005, when he won his Tour de France titles, as well as a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling with the Astana team in January 2009, finishing third in the 2009 Tour de France later that year. Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with Team Radio Shack, the UCI ProTeam he helped found. He retired for a second time in 2011.