Repeat Cycle

To this world-renowned destination, solace to so many seeking miracle cures, Lance Armstrong made a pilgrimage of his own in preparation for this year’s Tour de France.

For spiritual strength, perhaps, to ward off a recurrence of the cancer he so publicly has overcome? No. Not his style.

Did he light a candle or bathe in the famed waters after an off-season marked by recurring rumors, never substantiated, of illicit doping involving Armstrong’s team, the U.S. Postal Service squad? Hardly. There’s no need when, he says, one’s conscience is clear.

Ever pragmatic, Armstrong, the Tour’s two-time defending champion, came to Lourdes because he is focused on making it three. Lourdes is at the base of the Pyrenees mountains and Armstrong put in a ferocious training camp here that has left him, he says, feeling great heading into the Tour. It begins its three-week clockwise run around France Saturday in Dunkirk and ends July 29 on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Great means stronger than ever, if that’s possible. It means more motivated than ever, if that’s possible, because how else to respond to the doping rumors but to ride and train and work?

A third victory would elevate Armstrong into exclusive company. He would join Greg LeMond as a three-time American winner of the Tour de France, cycling’s most prestigious event and, as Armstrong is fond of noting, the only bike race that folks on the street in Los Angeles or New York or Austin, Texas--his hometown--know of.

A victory also would stamp Armstrong indelibly as one of cycling’s all-time greats. He says that’s a debate for others, that the task at hand is what matters.

“Are we confident? Yes,” Armstrong says over a table in the corner of a small hotel just off the main square in Lourdes, the U.S. Postal Service team’s base.

The hotel is an inn really, a cozy place where he can stroll into the lobby and the religiously preoccupied pay no mind to him, even though his is one of the most famous faces in Europe. This is the way Armstrong likes it. No distractions.

Bike racing, Armstrong points out, is a dangerous sport.

“There is illness. There are crashes,” he says. “There are variables I can’t control. But our preparation--mine, the team’s--is better than ever. The team is better than ever. We think the [Tour] course is suitable.

“This sport, this event, you can’t be overly confident. If you are, you’re asking for disaster.

“But are we confident? Yes. We’ve done the work.”

And how. During one three-day stretch in the Pyrenees, for example, Armstrong put in seven hours on the bike on Day 1, more than eight on Day 2 and, in what amounted to an easy workout, a mere four hours on Day 3. The roads were some of those that will be used during the 2001 Tour.

Eight-plus hours in the saddle amounted to 220 kilometers, about 130 miles, 50 of them uphill. He rode seven mountain passes that day.

“I’ve probably never put down a three-day block like that in my life,” Armstrong says.

Last week, he won the Tour de Suisse, a warmup for the Tour de France, in a manner that serves as testament to his time in Lourdes--and to his strategy for the Tour de France.

He surged to the lead after an overwhelming victory in a mountain time trial, winning a 15.5-mile stage from the little town of Sion to Crans Montana, another Swiss Alpine outpost, in 47 minutes 18 seconds--almost a minute and a half ahead of his nearest rival. He went on to win the entire 877-mile race in 35 hours 6 seconds--1 minute 2 seconds ahead of Gilberto Simoni of Italy.

On Monday, when the International Cycling Union released its world rankings, Armstrong--for the first time--was No. 1.

He told reporters after winning the Swiss event that the No. 1 ranking “was definitely on my mind. I’ve been close, third or second, but never No. 1.”

By all measures, Armstrong should be thoroughly in his glory.

He’s rich, having turned the neat trick of riding a bicycle in races in Europe into marketing gold in the United States.

He’s famous. More, to many he’s an inspiration--the guy who beat cancer to win what may well be the most demanding endurance feat in sport. Twice. So far.

All signs are that the cancer remains in remission, Armstrong says. His testicular cancer was discovered in 1996. Given less than a 40% chance of survival, he underwent brain surgery and chemotherapy and had a testicle removed. He resumed professional competition in 1998 but did not compete in that year’s Tour. The next year, he won it.

“Right now,” Armstrong says, “my story is a success story. If I get sick again, is it no longer a success story? There are implications there. I want to remain in the W column. The illness is an absolute bastard. You can never turn your back on it.”

He also says, “I’m coming up on five years,” meaning five years without a recurrence of the cancer, “which is a big damn day. That’s the day they say, ‘OK, guy, see you later.’ ”

Most important, perhaps, Armstrong and his wife, Kristin, are expecting twins. Their first child, Luke, whom Armstrong held on his shoulders on the victory podium last year in Paris, is now nearing 2 and walks and talks and shouts, “Daddy! Daddy!” when Daddy is off training somewhere and the phone rings at home.

“I have my health,” Armstrong says. “I have a beautiful, healthy family. I have a job I love. I have people I absolutely love.

“I just cannot complain.”

Except for a French investigation, launched last November, into the possibility that Armstrong’s team might have used banned substances in last year’s Tour de France.

The inquiry was begun after a French TV crew filmed a car, allegedly belonging to the U.S. Postal team, putting trash bags--filled with various substances and bloody compresses--into roadside garbage containers.

Last week, French authorities in Paris handling the inquiry said tests on the contents of U.S. Postal garbage bags from last year’s Tour had produced no evidence of illegal doping by team riders.

But it also said that the results of separate tests on urine and blood samples taken from U.S. Postal riders during the 2000 Tour weren’t known, and wouldn’t be for another month. It’s not clear what’s taking so long.

The team--and Armstrong--have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

In April, he called a news conference at the upscale George V hotel in Paris to say that urine samples taken from him and his teammates contained no banned substances. The French press in particular has insinuated since his first Tour victory in 1999--the year after the race became dominated by doping issues--that Armstrong must have been on something illicit to win after fighting cancer.

“We know we’re innocent,” he says now. “That they cannot mess with.”

Because the test results won’t be released until after this year’s Tour has ended, the upside for cycling is that news of the 2000 U.S. Postal results won’t compete with the results of the 2001 event.

The downside is that without a resolution, it’s bound to keep hanging over the sport, over Armstrong and over U.S. Postal.

The Tour was shattered in 1998 over revelations that many top cyclists were using performance-enhancing substances. Just last month, drugs overshadowed cycling again when police raids of team hotels and cars during the Giro d’Italia turned up stimulants, anabolic steroids and used syringes. More than 80 people, most of them cyclists, were put under investigation.

“The sad thing is, the sport is associated with needles and hypos,” said Mike Plant, head of USA Cycling. “People have used them legally for years. Fluid replacements and vitamin supplements can help you ride 20,000 miles in a year.

“Now, if anyone says, ‘We found needles and vials,’ the first insinuation is, ‘We found illegal drugs.’

“I don’t know what we’re going to do to change that. It’s part of the sport.”

John Hoberman, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin, who spent the last month in Denmark focusing on cycling as part of his extensive research on doping in sports, said, “There’s obviously a pharmacological gray zone that the riders are exploiting to the hilt,” adding a moment later, “The question is, where do you draw the line?”

Armstrong says that illicit doping “exists, absolutely,” in cycling.

But, he adds, “It’s not a cycling issue. It’s not a soccer issue. It’s not a this-sport or that-sport issue. It’s a sports issue, a society issue.”

Asked what it will take for skeptics to believe that he is innocent, if he rightly ought to be presumed innocent, he says, “I don’t know what it will take, is the answer.”

He thinks for a long while before continuing: “The people in my life--my family, a close circle of friends, my team--they know the truth. That’s what’s important.

“In three, four, five years I’m going to be gone [from cycling],” Armstrong says. “All these people who want to sensationalize, speculate, that’s fine.”

But when he retires, he says, he wants to have a “big group of kids,” stay busy “coaching T-ball,” maybe every now and then heading off to Jamaica to while away the nights drinking Red Stripe beer.

“And I’ll have the peace of heart, the peace of mind, the peace of soul, of knowing I did it the hard way.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Race Route

The Tour de France begins on Saturday, and 189 riders will attempt the 3,453.2 kilometer, 20-stage course. The 22-day race will travel from Dunkirk to Paris’ Champs Elysees.

Note: kilometer equal 5/8 of a mile

Sources: Tour de France; ESRI; WorldSat