“Was Hanging On by the Skin of My Teeth”: Lance Armstrong Once Described His Career-Changing Moment While Taking on a “S**tty Team”

Former cycling champ Lance Armstrong needs no introduction. Notably, after he was charged with doping charges, all his recognitions and medals went in vain. And his extremely successful world drastically changed into a pile of failure.

All his medals and trophies were taken away, and even his cancer foundation cut ties with him. Moreover, all his endorsements were snatched from him and his celebrity status got diminished. In no time, the 7X Tour de France champ became just an ordinary person with massive mistakes in his past. In an interview in 2013, Lance explained his experience on the comeback in 1998 Vuelta a España.

Lance Armstrong talks about his comeback in 1998

Lance Armstrong is a legendary cyclist who became a professional triathlete at the mere age of 15. But cycling was his stronger individual sport than swimming and running. Hence, Armstrong chose to focus on cycling. Till 1996, Armstrong was an established cyclist with several records in his name. Unfortunately, Armstrong had to take a break from his career and came back again in 1998.

In 2013, when an interviewer asked Lance about 1998 Vuelta a España. He replied, “The only thing—obviously the Vuelta isn’t the Tour or the Giro—is that I was super light, much lighter than I’d ever been in my career. You can see that from the pictures, but that ratio of power to weight was better, and I was incredibly motivated.”

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He continued, “We were still trying to scrap by as this team. Postal Service at the time was a sh*t team, and we took a s**tty team to the Vuelta. We caught some lucky breaks too. Sh*t, the first day there was a split, the very first day, and 200 guys split in two. And I was the 99th guy to make it. I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth. No secrets and if you look at the competition you had some explosive climbers like [José Maria] Jimenez, but you also had [Abraham] Olano win…”

The forced break in the career in 1996

In 1996, Lance Armstrong was at the top of his game and was creating several records. He was gradually getting to higher world rankings. But by that time, Armstrong began to face various issues with his health, like fatigue, which affected his performance.

Moreover, when he got tested, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had to take a break from the sport until he became fit again. That was a career break that derailed his success for a few years. But he came back extremely stronger and won seven back-to-back Tour de France from 1999 to 2005.

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After the setback in his career, he came back stronger in 1998 and performed excellently since then. However, all his achievements between 1999-2005 were stripped in 2012 by USADA when he was proven to have used illegal drugs during his career.