COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Lance Armstrong owes it all to his bicycle.
No surprise there.
“Without a bike, my life would not have been the same,” said the seven-time winner of the Tour de France during a fundraiser Thursday for Kids on Bikes, a group that buys bicycles for children. “It was a way to travel and see the world. It was a way of life, and it was a good living, and I can’t complain about that.
“But I think the beauty of it for me is that it enabled us—and I say us because it is a team effort—to share a good story, the story of cancer survivorship.”
Armstrong spoke to 600 people at a banquet for the organization founded by Paige Carmichael, wife of Armstrong’s longtime friend and personal coach Chris Carmichael. The group works to provide bicycles to underprivileged children in the Colorado Springs area.
Armstrong was at the top of the bicycle-racing world in 1996, when he received the dire diagnosis. He had testicular cancer that already had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. He was given no better than a 50-50 chance to live, but he defied the odds. He recovered and won the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005. Along the way, he found himself at a crossroads.
“When I left hospital, I was told I had two choices,” Armstrong said. “I could never talk about it and keep it a private issue, or I could walk out the other side. For the rest of your life you are a cancer survivor, and that’s the thing you want to be known as and that’s the story you tell and the mission you try to spread around the globe.”
Armstrong chose the latter.
In 1997, in cooperation with Nike, the Lance Armstrong Foundation was founded. It began selling the yellow-rubber “Livestrong” wrist bands for $1, and sales have exceeded $65 million.
“None of this would have been possible without the bicycle,” Armstrong said.
At 35, Armstrong remains an active crusader for cancer research. He stays in condition and will again run in the New York City Marathon. He still rides bicycles, but not with the same intensity.
Organizers of this weekend’s Leadville 100 race, which includes last year’s Tour de France winner Floyd Landis and Chris Carmichael, had hoped Armstrong would participate. Schedule conflicts prevented that.
“It would have been just a fun thing, riding against me and some other friends,” Carmichael said. “Hey, he’s retired. He’s already won the Tour de France seven times.”
