Lance Armstrong. Going for his fifth Tour de France in a row. His heart is nearly one-third larger than that of the average man. At resting, it beats an average of 32 times per minute, during peak performance, 200. He burns up about 6,500 calories every day for three weeks while in the race. One of the stages of the race is 120 miles long — that day he will burn 10,000 calories. You and I burn 3,500 and that’s on a good day. His lungs can take in twice the oxygen. His body fat level is 4 percent. Yours is 16. He has a weird femur bone, which is longer than the average man’s. That gives him more torque when peddling his bicycle for 2,000 miles through French mountains. It is almost as if he was built to ride.
Looking at this man it is unbelievable that cancer struck him in September 1996. He went through brain surgery and later chemotherapy so aggressive that it destroyed some of his muscle structure, burned parts of skin, and gave him permanent kidney damage. And yet the best bicyclists in the world have chased him for five years. He is the pacesetter. He is the measure by which all others gauge their success. He is the unique one. All others are taught by his example.