Lance Armstrong Wins Fifth Title of Tour de France

"I love cycling, I love my job and I will be back and win my sixth."

Lance Armstrong-- cancer survivor -- won his record-tying consecutive fifth title of Tour de France, or a 23-day, 2,125-mile event. He finished the full course at 83 hours 41 minutes and 12 seconds.

Armstrong won the Tour by his 61-second victory over Jan Ullrich. It was not Armstrong who finished the finish line first. He was the second. But his average was best among players.

Besides Armstrong and Indurain, just three other riders have won the Tour five times, but not consecutively. They are Belgium`s Eddy Merckx, and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault.

It was a victory of Armstrong`s strong will. He was diagnosed with cancer in October of 1996. The cancer already got spread to his lungs and brains. But he loved the sport and overcame the cancer. He successfully went through all the operations and chemotherapy treatments. Then, in 1999, he won the Tour title again.

But, he had to overcome more for this title. He had a stomach flu that was so bad before the Tour, he nearly didn`t make the flight to France. He was bruised in a crash in the second day. He lost 11 pounds through dehydration riding a time trial in a heat wave and struggled up the Tour`s most daunting climb, the 8,728 1/2 -feet Col du Galibier, with a faulty back brake rubbing against the wheel.

Until last year, he put wider gap on the climb laps. Even in 1999, when he came back from his cancer fight, he won the title by seven minutes and 37 seconds margin. But this year, he was not that strong.

"I love cycling, I love my job and I will be back," Armstrong said. "In many ways, I`m coming back to hopefully return to a level that I had for the first four because this year was not acceptable."

The climax of sportsmanship came last Monday on a mist-shrouded 8.3-mile ascent to the Pyrenean ski station of Luz-Ardiden, one of the Tour`s hardest climbs. Armstrong fell when a spectator`s outstretched bag hooked his handlebars. But he got back up and rode like a man possessed to roar past Ullrich, who in a gesture of sportsmanship waited for him to get back on his bike.

Tyler Hamilton, whose right clavicle was broken, finished the Tour fourth with a record of six minutes and 17 minutes.

jaeyuna@donga.com