Lance Armstrong added another chapter to his impressive life story when he rode into Paris as the winner of the 86th Tour de France. The US Postal rider dominated his comeback Tour after testicular cancer changed his entire approach to life at the end of 1996. Until that moment Lance was already a rider with an impressive record - which included a world championship (in 1993), a stage win in his first Tour de France that same year, and a glorious stage-winning tribute to his Motorola team-mate, Fabio Casartelli in the 1995 Tour.
Today Lance is the champion of the Tour!
Lance's his win surpasses all previous moments of glory for a rider who has matured from a strong, attacking opportunist into one of the most complete riders in world cycling. His 7'37" lead over second-placed Alex Zulle came courtesy of four utterly impressive stage wins - and with the help of a team of heroes who have never before raced with the motivation of the biggest prize in cycling. The efforts of Frankie Andreu, Pascal Derame, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Kevin Livingston and Christian Vandervelde can never be discounted from Armstrong's success.
Lance not only won all the time trials of the 1999 Tour, he also attacked on the vicious day of climbing to the Italian legend-creating ski resort of Sestrieres to confirm his all-round strength on the bike.

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