Anyone watching the Tour of Lance and his quest for 7? He is playng with the pelaton now; the mountains will come and he will crush the field, if no problems arise. Watching him is intense and incredible, especially knowing that he was left for dead years ago by his profession. What he does is inspring for cancer survivours.

I know this isn't much of a basketball officials topic but I think he could lose his front tire and still finish in first doing a wheelie all the way. He is inspiring. I was recently talking to a friend who was trying to explain to me how Lance has enlarged passages that allow more oxygen to his lungs or heart (one or the other) and we were discussing the tremendous advantage that gives him. Now here's my attemp to turn this back to the basketball topic; does anyone know about his situation or heard of other athletes or officials with a similar condition and how it benifits them?

Just another attempt to deny him the credit he deserves, jmo. Certainly is a great story though!!

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Let's see. Having serious cancer. Undergoing treatment for cancer with all of the difficult and harsh side effects. Being blessed enough to beat cancer. Explain to me once more how your friend see's this as an advantage?

In no way was he trying to take anything away from Lance, he was simply stating what he understood as fact and impressed with his physical ability. I know that alot of you have vast knowledge in alot of areas and that's why I thought I'd question if anyone else has heard such a thing. If it's completly untrue, then I'll apologize and erase my post.

All great (and most "average") athletes have some physical condition that's different from us mere mortals. Shaq is really tall. Randy Johnson can throw the ball 100mph. etc.

Now, to be clear, the great athletes work at maximizing the talents / physical abilities they were given, and just having some physical "abnormality" doesn't make for a great athlete (there are plenty of tall guys who aren't in the NBA).

Thanks for the info and your help.

Well, this isn't a human athlete, but when Secretariat died, they performed an autopsy and found that Secretariat's heart was twice the size of the average horse heart. Obviously, that would help in the oxygenation of the muscles. I thought that was pretty interesting.

As for Lance Armstrong, he is almost superhuman. To do what he has done 6 times and probably a 7th is incredible. That race is a true test of human endurance. He has to be considered one of the greatest athletes in history.

Unfortunately, in humans, an enlarged heart is a hazardous condition, frequently caused by high blood pressure and circulatory problems.

A recent article in Discover magazine outlined the "benefits" Lance enjoys and it's not related to his battle with cancer.

His VO2 max is higher than an average athlete, but without rigorous training his potential would never have been reached and he would have remained an average athlete. They tested his peers and they found that Lance has the ability to recruit more power per pound of muscle; thus, he's simply more efficient.

Along those lines, he goes through a dieting process a few weeks ahead of the Tour de France where he loses a certain amount of weight to minimize any extra baggage he's carrying and to maximize the efficiency of his muscles.

An echocardiogram performed on him showed no evidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or other cardiac structural abnormalities.

Simply, he's just the best at what he does as a superior athlete!

I wonder how he would do in other sports if cycling wasn't his sport of choice. ?? I guess with his mental makeup and determination, he could probably take his pick.

See the underlined part of your post. He has an advantage over my mom who was not so blessed.

Sorry to hear that Chuck. Neither was my aunt blessed enough beat cancer either. It was 4 years ago on June 30.

Peace

An enlarged heart is dangerous. A heart that is normally large is an advantage.

There are just some things you're born with. You can't really teach someone to be fast, or teach someone to jump high. It's just sort of something you're born with.

Being an avid biker myself, mountain biking, not road biking though, I really admire Lance and am impressed by all that he can do.