Lance Armstrong - Almost Never Made it... Twice

It almost never happened. Though he was a world-champion cyclist at 21, by 1998 Lance Armstrong was a 26-year-old cancer survivor who'd never finished better than 36th at the Tour de France and was struggling to reenter professional cycling. The big teams didn't want him, and he wasn't sure he wanted the sport. His first race back was the five-day Ruta del Sol, a February warmup for the long season ahead. He finished an encouraging 14th. But just two weeks later, while contesting the much more difficult Paris–Nice, he rolled to a stop in the middle of a cold, windy second stage and got off his bike. Even he doubted he would ever get back on.

Pretty incredible story from Outside magazine. He won his first Tour de France in '99 - but hours before the race started he very nearly crashed into a car. The world would never have known him. One wonders how many other people come that close to stardom and something intervenes.

This is a good article looking at the start of a legend - and a reminder of how incredible he was back then.

Today, he showed some of his age. He gained enough time in the Individual Time Trial to get back into 3rd place but his teammate Contador proved that he is the best rider in le Tour this year. Contador smoked everyone in an impressive ride - this Tour will definitely go down as one of the most interesting.