Lance Edward Armstrong is a former professional road racing cyclist born in Richardson, Texas. Armstrong is known to be a seven consecutive Tour de France winner from 1999 to 2005. However, all of these titles, including minor ones, were all stripped off from him when he got involved in a doping scandal. In this article, we are going to learn some interesting facts you might not about Texas cycling legend Lance Armstrong.

• Lance Armstrong was born as Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971.
• Armstrong’s parents got divorced when he was two years old. His mom later married Terry Keith Armstrong and later adopted Lance in 1974.
• Lance’s interest in the sport started when he was 12 years old. Back then, he was interested in swimming, and he even managed to bag the fourth sport at the Texas State 1500 meter freestyle event.
• When he was 13 years old, he joined the junior triathlon called Iron Kids Triathlon. He won the said event, and from then on, he decided to focus on cycling as his main sporting event.
• During the 1987-1988 Texas Triathlon, Lance Armstrong was hailed as the best under-19 triathlon.
• In 1987, he managed to garner higher total points than the professionals ranked higher than him.
• Lance Armstrong became a professional triathlete at age 16.
• From 1989 to 1990, Lance Armstrong became the national sprint-course triathlon champion.

• In 1992, Lance Armstrong joined the Motorola Cycling Team as a professional cyclist.
• A year after that, Armstrong got his debut victory at the World Road Race Championship in Norway. Since that victory, Armstrong went on to win ten one-day events and stage races that year.
• Lance Armstrong won a stage in Tour De France. This first win was during an event in the Chanlonssur-Marne to Verdun.
• Three days after his teammate died due to a crash at Col De Portet D’ Aspet, Lance Armstrong won a stage Limoges in the Tour De France.
• In the 1996 Olympics, Armstrong was on the sixth spot on the time trial and twelfth in the road race.
• Armstrong was the first American ever to win the La Fleche Wallonne and Tour DuPont two times.
• In 1996, Armstrong joined the French cycling team, Cofidis Cycling Team, where he signed a $2 million deal for two years.
• In October 1996, just two months after joining a new team, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer.

• The said illness had spread to his lungs, brain, and abdomen. During his orchiectomy, Armstrong’s doctors said that he had very little chance to survive. They told Lance that he had a 20 to 50 percent chance to live to give him hope.
• After two years of medication and several surgeries, Lance Armstrong was declared cancer-free.
• Because of his illness, Cofidis Cycling Team canceled his contract with them. However, Armstrong was offered a $2 million deal by the US Postal Team.
• Armstrong’s first Tour De France victory included four stages win wherein he beat Alex Zullu by 7 minutes 37 seconds. His success also had Time Trial in Metz and an Alpine Stage on stage 9.
• Marco Pantani and Jan Ulrich challenged Armstrong in 2000, which ended with Armstrong’s win by 6 minutes and 2 seconds.
• Lance Armstrong is known to be the only professional cyclist that won 7 consecutive Tour De France titles.
• Lance Armstrong became the first cyclist to bag three mountain stages wins continuously since Bartali’s record in 1948.
• Lance Armstrong had an aerobic capacity of 83.8 mL/Kg/min. This was higher than an average person but lower than other Tour De France winners like Greg LeMond and Miguel Indurain.
• Lance Armstrong asked all his sponsors to do a collaborate with him. Brands like AMD, Nike, Trek, Bontrager, Oakley, Shimano, and Sram willingly collaborated with him and released many products.
• After several denials and court cases, Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping in an interview in Oprah Winfrey in January 2013.