Lance Armstrong: It's Not About the Bike

Lance Armstrong

His life has lead thousands to feel the desire to progress and to achieve excellence. Everyone knows of the struggles and trials that Lance Armstrong went through to overcome cancer and to return and win the Tour De France. He has now won the Tour de France six times. He has had a remarkable comeback, and it is a remarkable story. As I learned of his trials and read about his life I was amazed at what he had to endure and at the examples that he had in his life. It was a book that I could not put down. The story inspired me to make some good decisions in my life and has helped me to motivate myself to do my best. I think he says it best when he says, it is not about the bike.

This book portrays many examples of good and bad leadership. As I was reading the book I tried to make a note of all the examples. He has his coaches who helped him overcome his desires to over-exert at the beginning of the race, His mom helped him all through his life to be the best that he could be, and he had excellent doctors who lead him to increase his confidence with overcoming the cancer. He had many people who were on his team to lead him to recover with confidence, he also had a wonderful friend who he later married, Kik. She was not only a support but she led him to survive life after cancer. He had many great leaders and he himself developed many good qualities of leadership, but the main ones that I want to focus on are his leadership, his mom, and his wife.

Lance's mom said after he won his first Tour that his whole life had been a struggle, and I think that is exactly how you would describe his life. The story tells of Lance's struggles growing up, his struggles to get started, his struggles to overcome his weaknesses, his struggles to beat cancer, and his struggles to come back and be the best. The reason this story is so good is because he not only has those struggles, but he overcomes every one of them. Lance develops many leadership qualities while he is growing up and that is one of the big things that helped him to survive. He almost makes all those trials sound like anyone could do it. Unless you really understand what he did then you realize that it takes a superhuman to do what he was able to do.

Cancer is a disease that doesn't care if you have goals, hopes, and dreams. Lance said, "Some good strong people get cancer and do all the right things to beat it, and they still die. That is the essential truth that you learn. People die." But this story is how Lance is able to beat it and overcome big obstacles. Lance was always an elite athlete. When he was sixteen he went to Cooper Clinic in Dallas and they measured his VO2 max. They tell Lance that his numbers are still the highest they have ever seen. This means that he is able to take in more oxygen than almost anyone alive. His body also produces less lactic acid than most people. Lance was born with some special gifts, but to survive he had to learn to develop other gifts that he thought he may never use.

Lance had great support form his mother and he learned a life long lesson from her that he was able to use the rest of his life. His mom one day told Lance after a frustrating day at work, "Son, you never quit." She taught him instead, to get through it. His mom was more than just a leader and caregiver for Lance, she was an inspiration. When Lance had one of his first opportunities to ride in the professionals he had been losing

many of his events and finally during one race he called his mom to come and visit him in Europe. She took some time off of work and went to watch him race. Lance said she was there so she could watch, but also because he didn't want to go through it alone. While she was there she stayed with him until his next race. She took care of him and on the day of the race she sat in the rain for seven hours watching him and waiting for him to finish. That day Lance won his first race as a professional. Lance depended on his mom for a lot of things and she was able to help him get through the cancer. She was a great leader and one of the most motivated people that I have ever heard about. She taught him to never be intimidated and to put his head down and accomplish his goals. There are so many examples of how his mom helped him get through a trial, make a hard decision, or just to be the best that he can be. That is what a leader does is to help others to progress and be the best that they can be. She did that for him, and most of the time she probably didn't even know that she was doing it.

In Lance's career he had so many ups and downs, and with that he had to overcome a lot and change a lot. When Lance started riding he was considered one of the toughest riders there was, but also one of the dumbest riders because he had so much power that he could surge and go whenever he wanted but then he would not have enough energy to finish strong. Some days he had so much energy that he would surge through the whole race and come in second or third. For any person to do that it is almost amazing, but like I said it is also dumb. Lance says when he looks back at his younger self he can't help feel impatient with him because he could have done so much better. While he was going through this stage in his life he had two really good coaches to help him control those tendencies. His American coach for the Olympics and national events was Chris Carmicheal. His Professional coach was Jim Ochowicz, "Och". These two coaches help mold this young ambitious rider into a world class athlete. They were very patient with Lance and they taught him when to attack and how to make himself into a better rider.

Lance's main support during the cancer was from his mom, but while he was recovering and starting to ride again his big support came from his wife. She helped him survive one of the hardest parts of his life. While Lance was still figuring out if he had lived through everything with cancer, he forgot to live. He spent everyday eating Mexican food, drinking beer, and playing golf. He was wasting his life away and everyone new it. Lance just couldn't get out of the rut that he was in. One day his wife went up to him and told him he needed to decide what he was going to do because she was ready to start taking action. She told him to make a decision, and that pushed Lance to figure himself out and start all over. This showed a lot of integrity and love for Lance and she was a good example to him.