It's Not About the Bike 
Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins

JN:     

        One day, Lance Armstrong discovered that he had testicular cancer. He had been experiencing several severe symptoms, including headaches, coughing up blood, and an extremely enlarged testicle. As a world-renowned cyclist, Lance was accustomed to constant pain and thought very little of the symptoms. However, when his doctor confirmed that he had cancer, Lance's first thoughts were that he would never race again. It only occurred to him later that he might not even live. 
        (We now circle back to the beginning) Lance grew up without a dad but an extremely loving and supportive mom. Lance's mom worked hard to earn money and move up the ranks to a secretary. At age 5, a local man who grew fond of Lance and his mom gave Lance a bike. Lance loved the bike a lot and enjoyed his freedom. As Lance's mom earned more money, they moved to a nice neighborhood where football was popular in school. Lance's mom married a guy that ended up cheating on her and treating her badly but did pay the bills. 
        After a couple of years, they divorced but Lance's mom kept his last name: Armstrong. In school, Lance tried out football but was horrible at it. He then tried out for swimming, and after doing poorly for the first couple of months (since he was twelve and just learning to swim), he started training rigorously and eventually excelled at endurance swimming. Each day, he would bike ten miles to swim practice, swim, and then bike back home. Lance also joined cross country and won his first race, discovering that he was gifted at long-distance racing. 
He soon discovered triathlons and began competing in them. Lance found a lot of success in his early races and won many. He also earned enough money from the races to buy better bikes and even a car, which he would ride despite not having a license. 
        During his regular bike rides, Lance would ride with cars and wasn’t afraid to run lights. When his friends would drive home, he would bike home. This recklessness eventually got him into an accident, but despite the severe injury, he still ended up competing a couple of days later. By this point, Lance was gaining national fame for his accomplishments, particularly in biking, and broke multiple records.  
        For his first international race, he went to Moscow for a race, and although he didn’t do amazing, he still impressed many. His school (because he was still in high school), disapproved of his many unexcused absences and told Lance that he wouldn’t be able to graduate. In response, Lance's ever-supportive mom found a private school that would let him graduate cheaply. 
        Out of high school, Lance rode around the country but didn't find his options to be lucrative. Eventually, he got a call from the US cycling team to join them and immediately said yes. Lance was finally getting out of his small town and going to Europe. 
        In Europe, he first experienced failure. While talented, Lance had little knowledge of the strategy that went along with the team sport. Often, Lance would attack too early (try and get ahead of everyone else) and get caught by the peloton before the end (the peloton is the large group of bikers in a bike race that as a whole are much faster than any individual). However, by the end of the year, he had won a huge event and felt his cycling career kicking off. The event after, however, he fell into dead last and wanted to quit (a high high and a low low). 
Sometime later, Lance competed for million dollar bonus to whoever could complete three US events, and with lots of hard work, Lance accomplished that. Despite these achievements, there was one thing he had yet to accomplish, or even complete for that matter, and that was the Tour de France. 
        Over the next couple of years, Lance continued to learn and become smarter with his attacks and finally was ready to take on the Tour de France. While Lance was very good at single-day events, the race would be over several weeks and required consistent excellence. In one of the last races of the Tour de France, Lance's good friend Fabio died in a crash, and the peloton all rode in memory of him the following day. Similarly, in a race that Fabio wanted to win, Lance went forward to win it for him, which was a very heartfelt moment for him as that was the first time he experienced significant grief. 
        (We now go back to when Lance was diagnosed with testicular cancer) Lance called his friends and family to tell him the news, and they flew immediately to Austin to see him and were all very supportive. The cancer was spreading fast, and every day mattered now. Lance went to a sperm bank to save what sperm he had left. He then went to the hospital to deal with his stage 3 cancer which had spread to his lungs and learned he now had around a 65% survival rate. Lance held a press conference where he announced his situation to the public. He then started treatment, taking chemo and several other medicines to help his chances but make him incredibly weak and sick. 
        A couple of days later, he took an MRI, and the doctors found out the cancer had moved to his brain. Lance kept wondering what his chances were, which at this point were around 50% but then began to realize that there was no point in inquiring about his odds (he either gets through it or he doesn't). He then began to think existentially and ask the questions that everyone with a severe disease asks. Fortunately, the brain surgery was successful, and over the next few months, Lance began making steady progress. Nike also kept him on as a sponsor throughout his cancer to dispel any worries about coming back (to make his sole focus on beating cancer).
        As his condition improved, his strength returned too. Lance was able to switch between the hospital and his house in cycles depending on if he was going on chemo. He also went on some bike rides with several friends and didn’t realize how much strength he lost until a middle-aged woman going half-speed passed him while he breathed heavily. 
        Finally, Lance won his battle against cancer and wanted to create a foundation to help others. Similarly, Lance went to the same hospital to talk to other kids experiencing cancer. He finally said goodbye to his nurse, which was a special moment for Lance as he had grown close to her. Now Lance just had to hope that cancer didn’t remiss. The chemo would either work or he would be dead within a couple of months. As Lance grew his foundation, he met a girl by the name of Kik. Even though they spent time working together, Kik and Lance would find ways to spend more time together. Eventually, they became closer and traveled to Europe together, where Lance would make an appearance at the Tour de France but not compete in it. Since he didn't have to focus on competing, he and Kik could experience the cities and fall in love. 
        Returning to the US, Lance had to decide if he wanted to get back to cycling. Lance still earned disability money ($20k a month so not a bad paycheck), which he would forfeit if he chose to compete again. The one-year remission period officially ended, meaning Lance successfully beat cancer, and with that no longer over his head, he decided that he would race again. Lance also proposed to Kik, and she accepted, showing how quickly they fell in love.  He moved to Europe with Kik, with Kik giving up everything in her life and moving. 
        There, Lance went to one race, got 14th, and immediately wanted to quit. He told Kik to pack up as they were going back to Austin, and While frustrated, she didn’t complain. In Austin, Lance became a slob and didn’t have any plans for how he would retire. When she had enough, Kik finally addressed Lance about deciding on what was going to happen, as the indecision was crushing her. All the while, she secretly talked with several of Lance's biking friends and management to get him back on the bike, even just for one final race in the United States. Over the next couple of weeks and months, her plan worked and Lance got back on the bike and started enjoying it again. 
        Kik and Lance decided to try and have a baby, and after a lot of shots, appointments, and conversations, Kik was officially pregnant. Since the pregnancy was going well, Lance went to France to prepare for the tour for a couple of months before it began. Within the first couple of races, Lance started to get into his groove again and even won several stages. He received a lot of press, which he loathed, especially with all of the people accusing him of drug use (he did get caught a lot later which greatly tarnished his reputation). Several strong race wins later and great finishing, he won the tour, and all of his hardship was worth it. A couple of months later, Lance and Kik's son was born. (The book ended there, but Lance went on to win six more Tour de France titles. However, they were all taken away from him due to his performance-enhancing drug use. Lance and Kik had 3 children but divorced in 2003. That's all for Lance Armstrong's autobiography about his triumph over cancer and later victorious return to cycling even if his victory was later revoked. Enjoy your day, and thanks for reading! Steroids for sports are for the weak.)