Retirement 2.0: Armstrong is parking his bicycle ‘for good’
Lance Armstrong says he is leaving the professional race for good.
To prove that he will no longer pedal with his bicycle and continue the ride for a couple more years, American cyclist hero, Lance Armstrong has called his 2011 split from the professional race, “Retirement 2.0”.
In an exclusive interview with Jim Litke of the Associated Press Tuesday, Armstrong emphasized that this time, his retirement is official and there’s no turning back. After finishing 65th in his last ride in Australia in January, the 39-year-old reiterated that he has parked his bicycle and it will no longer roll for a competitive ride. After all, he noted, he has just had the greatest rides of his career.
"I can't say I have any regrets. It's been an excellent ride,” Armstrong was quoted by Litke in an AP interview in Austin Texas.
He has called it "Retirement 2.0", referring to his second announcement of leaving the professional cycling competition behind. Armstrong first retired in 2005. By then he had seven titles to his credit, edging everyone else in the race.But he went back in 2009 in hopes to bag another title.
The attempt for another win was also prompted by the drug use allegations accusing the cancer-survivor to have advanced in his career aided with performance-enhancing drugs, thereby making him one of the greatest professional cyclists in history and that which no one has outdone the bar he had set in the cycling race.
His second retirement Lance noted is brought also by limitations beyond his control. One is the growing responsibilities with the expanding needs of his family. And two, his physique is giving up on him, earlier than he had wished.
"The crashes, the problems with the bike — those were things that were beyond my control," he explained.
The cyclist said he is tired, and 'tired of being hounded', added AP.
In mid-1990s, his doctor gave him the bad news that he had cancer, an illness he was told, would keep him away from his bike and the competition. And he proved everyone wrong, not only in surviving the cancer but also in winning more titles than anyone would believe he would, with the fatal disease. This has made him from a relatively unknown athlete to one of America's greatest heroes with good stories to tell. He is planning on telling them he said, as after parking his bike.