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The Armstrong Story - Part III
By Ian Melvin
Jul 18, 2003, 09:23

Part III - times get tough.

A million dollar Triple Crown, a stage of the Tour de France and World Champion. 1993 was the year that Lance Armstrong arrived in Europe. 1994 was the year he had to prove he was for real.

After a tough year living in Italy, Lance initially intended to move to Nice to be near two of his closes friends in the pro peloton and teammates, Sean Yates and Phil Anderson. But as the Texan explained shortly before the season began, "I was moving but now I'm not. I don't want to change a thing; I want to keep as many things the same as last year. Why mess with success?"

Lance arrived back in Como having spent a hard winter training back in Austin. "I'm eager to do it all again," he said. "I want to prove that you can win big races in the rainbow jersey. You know a lot of people think it's just a curse. If I don't win a classic I'm going to be seriously disappointed."

That spring Armstrong set about proving his doubters wrong and finished an impressive second behind Russian Evgeni Berzin in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. This and a second place in the San Sebastian Classic were to prove to be the highlight's for the American who found himself closely marked in other races throughout the season. His only notable successes coming in the US with victory in the Thrift drug Classic and a stage in the Tour DuPont, a race he finished second overall in. He failed to finish in that years Tour and there were even rumblings of unrest from within the Motorola squad. Mutterings of "too much too soon" were very easy to imagine.

Later, looking back at the season Armstrong said, "I was pleased with the year. I felt I was a lot stronger physically and was probably a better bike racer, but obviously it wasn't as awesome as my '93 season. Things went OK last year, but the cards just didn't fall into place."

1995 arrived with Armstrong feeling good about the forth-coming season. "Let's just say that I'm ready to go," he said shortly before the start. Now in his third year with the Motorola team he added, "I'd say this team was probably built around me." Asked about his goals for the year he continued, "The classics are important, and the Tour DuPont and CoreStates."

A stage victory in Paris-Nice was followed by another disappointing spring campaign; Armstrong headed back state side where after winning the West Virginia Classic he headed to the Tour DuPont. Asked for his thoughts on this race earlier in the year he had said, "I can't afford to finish second again." Seemingly starting the race weighed down with pressure and expectation, Armstrong came through at the mid-way point, winning the stage to Blacksburg and taking enough time out of the other riders to take the leaders jersey. Two more stage victories in the individual time trial and at the summit of Beech Mountain gave him overall honors at the race and kick-started his season.

For the Texan, the 1995 Tour de France turned out to be his very own The good, The bad and The ugly. There was the loss to Polti's Sergei Outschakov on stage 13 into Revel. Then, two days later there was the tragic death of Armstrong's Italian team-mate Fabio Casartelli from head injuries sustained when he fell on a descent. The following day was rode as a memory to the reigning Olympic champion after the Motorola team decided to continue in the race at the start in Tarbes; all remaining team mates crossing the finish line together that day just ahead of the peloton. "That certainly changed my attitude towards the sport," said Lance looking back at the events some months later. "What was so special about that day was that nothing had been planned - it all happened spontaneously that morning and was completely unanimous," he added. Finally there was stage 18 where Armstrong broke clear of the peloton in a small group before leaving all his companions and soloing into Limoges to take a very emotional victory. Riding through the final 200m pointing up at the sky, "That was for one person," he declared.

But 1995 wasn't over yet. To cap off a memorable six weeks he triumphed at San Sebastian, the Spanish World Cup race where three years previously he had finished in the very last position, over twenty minutes behind the winner that day, Raul Alcala. Determined to not repeat the mistakes he made in the Tour on stage 13, attacking his break away companions until only one remained, Armstrong sprinted to victory and so brought his young and turbulent career full circle, silencing his critics and also earning respect within the peloton.
"I feel now that I'm proving that I'm here to stay and that I want to be a good professional," he said later in the year. "If I continue to have more years like 1995 I will have the beginning of a good career, a solid career to look back on.”

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