AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Lance Armstrong knows there\u2019s more to winning the Tour de France than just his muscular legs and amazing stamina. It takes some luck, too.
\nA crash, an ill-timed tire puncture and even sickness can doom a rider in the sport\u2019s most grueling event.
\n\u201cAnytime you have three weeks of open road, you need some luck,\u201d said Armstrong, selected The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year of Thursday.
\n\u201cOne night you get some bad food, you can\u2019t do anything the next day and you lose half an hour,\u201d he said. \u201cKnock on wood.\u201d
\nIf luck is the product of hard work, Armstrong should have plenty.
\nArmstrong has conquered everything in his path \u2014 including the cancer that spread from his testicles to his lungs and brain in 1996 \u2014 to four consecutive Tour de France titles.
\nHe was given just a 50-percent chance to live and his amazing recovery and victories have earned him worldwide praise from sports fans and other cancer fighters.
\nArmstrong and Barry Bonds were the top two vote-getters for the AP award for a second straight year, only this time the San Francisco Giants\u2019 slugger finished second.
\nArmstrong received 45 first-place votes and 292 points from writers and broadcasters. Bonds had 31 first-place votes and 233 points.
\n\u201cUh oh, hopefully he\u2019s not mad,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be recognized.\u201d
\nTiger Woods, the winner in 1999 and 2000, finished third for the second year in a row. He received seven first-place votes and 110 points.
\nArmstrong takes advantage of the platform his comeback has given him to drive cancer-fighting campaigns. He started the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which funds cancer research and fills his rare free time with hospital visits and speaking at fund-raisers.
\nWhile he has no stump speech, his message is the same: Cancer made him the person he is today.
\n\u201cWhen I came back, I said if I ever get a chance to do this, I\u2019m going to give it everything. I\u2019m going to train correctly, eat right. I\u2019m not going to mess up,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I say all the time that the illness is the best thing that ever happened to me.
\n\u201cI would never have won one Tour de France if I hadn\u2019t had it. No doubt.\u201d
\nWinning one Tour de France would have secured his place in cycling history. Capturing four in row put him among the greatest riders ever.
\nA victory in 2003 would tie the record of five. Spain\u2019s Miguel Indurain (1991-95) is the only champion of five in a row. Armstrong raced in three of Indurain\u2019s victories and holds the Spaniard in high regard.
\n\u201cHe was an incredible time trialist, the best that ever lived,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cI can win a time trial today, but I would do it by seconds. He could win by a couple of minutes.\u201d
\nArmstrong was a time-trial specialist himself before the cancer. It was during his recovery that he amazingly turned himself into a dominator in the punishing mountain stages, where his breakaways up steep climbs separate him from the rest of the pack.
\nTour officials already have mapped out the course for the 2003 race, which will be the event\u2019s 100-year anniversary, with additional mountain stages but fewer really steep climbs. That still bodes well for the 31-year-old Armstrong winning No. 5.
\nWhile he\u2019s already eyeing a possible sixth title in \u201904, Armstrong won\u2019t be caught daydreaming.
\n\u201cAs you approach the mid 30s, it\u2019s difficult to maintain a high level,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t feel weaker, I don\u2019t feel less motivated, and the team is strong.
\n\u201cI know what I\u2019m doing in 2003, and I think I know what I\u2019m doing in 2004. But after that, I don\u2019t think about it.\u201d
\nAway from his bike and his cancer-related work, Armstrong is a proud family man.
\nHe met wife Kristin while still taking chemotherapy. Son Luke was born in 1999, when Armstrong won his first Tour de France. Twin girls Isabelle and Grace came along last year.
\nIt\u2019s his family, and the realization that he almost never had one, that drives Armstrong.
\n\u201cSeeing your kids tomorrow isn\u2019t guaranteed,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cLook at this life like it\u2019s a gift. That\u2019s the way I try to view my life, my family \u2014 as a gift.\u201d
\nA downside to his riding dominance is that it raised suspicions among French media and officials that Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team were doping.
\nHeckled by fans during last year\u2019s race, Armstrong has repeatedly denied taking banned substances and has never failed a doping test. French authorities in September closed a two-year investigation because of a lack of evidence.
\nCancer, however, ultimately gave Armstrong the thing he\u2019s maybe most proud of: the label of survivor.
\n\u201cSports will come and go and I will be forgotten,\u201d he said. \u201cBut something like the illness will never go. I\u2019ll always have that tag.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Lance Armstrong knows there\u2019s more to winning the Tour de France than just his muscular legs and amazing stamina. It takes some luck, too. A crash, an ill-timed tire puncture and even sickness can doom a rider in the sport\u2019s most grueling event. \u201cAnytime you have three weeks of open road, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}