Lance Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas) is a retired American professional road racing cyclist, regarded as one of the greatest sportsmen in history. He is most famous for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, several years after brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy in 1996 to treat testicular cancer that had metastasized to his brain and lungs.
In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him their Sportsman of the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003. Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but his success prompted some to nickname the event the "Tour de Lance."
His athletic success and his dramatic recovery from cancer inspired Armstrong to commemorate his accomplishments in conjunction with Nike through the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a charity founded in 1997.
Together with Nike he launched the high-end cycling clothing collection 10/2 referring to the day he was diagnosed with cancer.
