Bob Roll: The Tour De France Companion

Lance Armstrong: The Official Tour De France: Centennial 1903-2003

 
Lance Armstrong: Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion

Jeremy Whittle: Le Tour: A Century of the Tour de France

John Wilcockson: The 2003 Tour De France

2003 Tour de France 4-hour  DVD

2003 Tour de France 12-hour DVD

Lance Armstrong: Every Second Counts

2002 Tour de France - Four and Counting! (5-Disc Boxed Set)

Marguerite Lazell: Tour De France: The Ilustrated History

Cassell: The Official Tour De France : Centennial 1903-2003

James Startt: Tour de France/Tour de Force Updated and Revised 100-Year Anniversary Edition

Maynard Hershon: Half-Wheel Hell and Other Cycling Stories

Lance Armstrong: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Ralph Hurne: The Yellow Jersey

"The last laps there, I thought, 'Ah, I want to get this over with,"' the 32-year-old Texan said. "But then I thought to myself, 'You know, you might want to do a few more laps, because you may not ever do it again.' And you can't take it for granted."

With the Arc de Triomphe in the background, Armstrong put his yellow bicycle cap over his heart during the raising of the American flag and playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

His winning margin over second-placed Andreas Kloden -- 6 minutes and 19 seconds -- was not his biggest. But it was a vast improvement on last year, when he beat Jan Ullrich by just 61 seconds. Then, the complacent champion not in great shape came to the race thinking "I could win fairly easily."

"A recipe for disaster," he says now. "I paid the price and learned a valuable lesson, and I won't ever make that mistake again."

This year, he roared back with renewed fire. With five solo stage wins and a team time trial victory with his Postal squad, this was Armstrong's best Tour.

But that illness and the chemotherapy that beat it made his body better adapted to the Tour's demands. Lighter and less muscular, he found it easier to climb the Alps and Pyrenees.

Those ascents became his allies. He trained on them relentlessly before this Tour -- and then left his adversaries gasping as he again rode away into the distance.

And what's the pain of burning legs and lungs when compared to the agonies of cancer-beating chemicals burning your veins?

His sixth crown elevated Armstrong above four great five-time champions: Jacques Anquetil, who loved his wine, food and winning; Eddy Merckx, the Belgian "Cannibal" who devoured rivals and glory; the testy Bernard Hinault, who bullied the pack; and Miguel Indurain, the Spanish professional.

"Winning six times does not make me a better rider than those champions," Armstrong said. "Today's cycling is just different."

He brought American brashness, determination, know-how and fans to a race that needed a new champion after its worst doping scandal in 1998.

"He's changed the Tour forever. He has set the blueprint for success," American rider Bobby Julich said. "From here on out, it's going to be done the way that he has done it, until the next era."

And the Tour molded Armstrong into a superstar and softened some of his rough edges.

He learned enough French to complain about those who boo and even spit on him.

No. 6. The record. The achievement was almost too much even for Armstrong to comprehend.

"It might take years. I don't know. It hasn't sunk in yet. But six, standing on the top step on the podium on the Champs-Elys Dees, is really special," he said.

Sunday's final ride into Paris and its famous tree-lined boulevard was savored with a glass of champagne in the saddle. Even Ullrich, his main adversary in previous years, gulped down a glass offered by Armstrong's team manager through his car window.

"He's been the strongest man for the last six years," Kloden said. "It's unbelievable."

Even more so than in other Tours that he dominated, Armstrong finished off rivals in the mountains -- with three victories in the Alps, including a time trial on the legendary climb to L'Alpe d'Huez, and another in the Pyrenees. He also took the final time trial Saturday, even though his overall lead was so big he didn't need the win.

"We never had a sense of crisis, only the stress of the rain and the crashes in the first week," Armstrong said. "I was surprised that some of the rivals were not better. Some of them just completely disappeared."

"It was my finest three weeks in a Tour de France," he said. But the victory was significant for more than just historical or sporting reasons. It was significant because as cancer survivor Armstrong has proven that someone can not only survive, but thrive. Armstrong has established that someone can be better for having been sick. In this Tour, he won five solo stage wins and a team time trial. He decimated his rivals in the mountains, with three straight victories in the Alps, including a time trial on the legendary climb to L'Alpe d'Huez, and another in the Pyrenees.

Ten minutes before Armstrong went out to warm up for the final time trial of the Tour in Besancon, he checked his Blackberry, and read a message from a friend at Nike, Scott McEachern. That day, a man had gone into a Niketown store and purchased 500 yellow Live Strong bracelets, which are being sold as a fundraiser by Armstrong's cancer foundation. The goal was to sell them for a dollar apiece and raise $5 million, but 8 million have been sold. The gentlemen who bought a case of 500 had bought them for this reason: His father had just died of cancer. While he was alive, the father had watched every minute of the Tour. His son wanted to give the bracelets out at the funeral.

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It will be interesting now to see whether Armstrong remains motivated. He's spent so much of his life in embattled striving, whether in fighting illness, or competing in the grueling Tour. For years, Armstrong has carefully weighed every morsel of pasta he put in his mouth, and denied himself basic comforts in pursuit of Tour titles. He has spent months away from his family, lived an almost monkish life. He has elevated the race with cutting-edge training methods and technology, turning it into an almost scientific undertaking. He has probably made the race look too easy. Few people, perhaps no one, can understand the toll the race has taken on him. The thinness of his face and the jutting of his cheekbones only suggest it.

"People don't understand that when he attacks the race the way he does, he's exposed," says John Korioth, his close friend. "He could crack, and if he cracks, a competitor can blow right by. When he attacks he's showing all his cards."

Armstrong may be tired of the price the Tour exacts. There are some things he'd like to do. He'd like be able to eat a dish of ice cream without thinking about the cost to his training. He'd like to spend time with his girlfriend, singer Sheryl Crow, who put her career on hold to accompany him in his campaign. "She makes me look like a slacker," he says. "She has dove into this life. Everybody is crazy about her. She's brilliant, humble and beautiful." He'd like to train in the States more, to be closer to his children. He has bought a house near his ex-wife, Kristin (from whom received a warm e-mail before the Tour began), in order to spend more time with them. He'd like to compete in the Giro d'Italia and Tour of Spain and other classic races, without which his reputation as a cyclist won't be complete.

And there is something Armstrong doesn't want: he doesn't want to return to the Tour and lose. "I don't want to be the guy left on the mountainside, who gets passed," he says.

John Leicester and Sally Jenkins contributed to this story.