It's been said that all athletes die twice. Add to that: unless you're Lance Armstrong. In his first year away from cycling, the seven-time Tour de France winner has raised millions to fight cancer, hosted the ESPYs, become part owner of a cycling team, and trained—somewhat—for his first marathon. (All while becoming a party-guy fixture in the tabloids.) CHRISTOPHER KEYES sat down with the world's busiest retiree to talk about fundraising, politics, and his advice for Floyd Landis.
OUTSIDE: The tenth anniversary of your diagnosis—October 2, 1996—is a couple days away. Does that feel like forever ago?
ARMSTRONG: Yeah, it feels like a long, long time ago. But I'm reminded about it every day because of the work I do. I'm reminded because LiveStrong is everywhere I look. But I have no plans for the day this year. I guess I'll be at home. I'll take the kids to school in the morning. Plus I'll go for a run or a bike ride. That's a pretty good day.
You seem to be taking retirement pretty well.
Yeah, but I think there's always that adjustment. It's hard to go from being extremely fit to gaining 10 to 15 pounds and to get on a bike and not feel the same. The buddies you used to clobber—now you're there with them.
Any regrets about not racing just one more Tour?
No. If cyclists went to 45, it might be a different story, but I knew I was playing with history. I'm an old guy: I'm 35. That's when [Miguel] Indurain lost it, you know. All those guys lost it.
You make a lot of references to being 35. Do you think about that a lot?
Thirty-five is pretty old!
That'll piss a few people off.
[Laughs] It's interesting, because from 15 to 35 I lived a monk's lifestyle, completely focused on sports. And now I can let myself go a little more and be with friends at a party. Most people have that in high school and college. I never had any of that.
A wild night for you used to be a Shiner Bock and a couple of tortilla chips.
I've made up for some of that.
I know. I see pictures of you everywhere. Is that a surprise? I suppose that, these days, anyone with a cell phone can be paparazzi, but—
It's unbelievable. I don't know how far we are from live streaming video of people. You've really got to think about it, if you're going out with your buddies to have a couple of beers. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is private.
How hard is it for you to see tabloid rumors about you and not respond to them?
Rumors like . . .
Well, like that you're hanging out a lot with Matthew McConaughey, and there's the notion that you two are a lot more than good friends.
That's so ridiculous that . . . I mean, I know what I'm into, and I know what McConaughey's into, and it's not that. [Laughs]
Settle another rumor: Who's going to play you in the movie about your life—McConaughey or Jake Gyllenhaal?
There was a whole thing because I was hanging with those guys all the time. But the movie has gotten way ahead of itself, because the script is technically not even done. I haven't seen it. And if the actors interested have half an ounce of integrity, then they have to like the script. Even Jake has said to me, "Listen, I love to ride, you're my bud, but I have to see the script."
Do you have any say in it?
A little bit. But at some point you just turn it over to the writer you trust and you say, "OK, go for it." I've done some dickhead things in my day, and if that makes the movie better, they'll probably put it in there. At the premiere I'll just be like [places hands over eyes], Ohhh, did I do that? What I'm really sensitive to is the cycling part. You can't have a dude with his knees out here, head going back and forth . . . That's something I'll say about Jake: When he's riding, you think he's a bike rider, which is cool.
How has your role with the Lance Armstrong Foundation helped you handle retirement?
I obviously have this need for competition, and I've channeled my energy into that. Or tried to channel it. It's totally different. There's not that defining moment you have in sport, like "I did it." But I feel like I can take away small victories.
What victories excite you?
Every time a potential presidential candidate calls us and they make the trip to Austin to sit down with us. We will win because of that. When one does it, the other has to match the effort or equal it or better it. That will ultimately add up to a big victory. And what is victory? Victory is the disease going away. That's not a reality in a year or two—it may not be a reality in 20—but we can make progress.
Talk more about that, because people see these impressive numbers—50, 60, 70 million raised—but they might not know where the money goes.
We've raised $140 million so far. And through that we give out a lot of grants. They're not all million-dollar grants. These can be $5,000 grants for patient outreach, $100,000 research grants, but you definitely start to see progress. Our stuff is more community-based. It's not as if we're funding someone's project to map the cancer genome. That takes tens of millions. The government needs to fund that.
Meaning the president, right? Everyone knows you asked President Bush for—
Yeah, for a billion. We were at lunch one day after riding and he said, "How's it going?" He didn't say, "How's it going with the foundation?" It was more like, "Take any trips lately?" I went into the cancer thing, thinking I could find a welcome audience because his sister died of cancer. And I dropped the billion idea. He was like, "Yeah, I'll have some people look into that." He didn't just say, "Are you crazy?" He didn't just blow me off.
But it didn't go any further?
A little bit. But we were pretty far behind on their budget schedule. We didn't get the billion. We won't see a change there, I think, until we have a new president and a new administration.
I was reading this morning that the war in Iraq is costing $2 billion a week.
Yeah, those two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, will be trillion-dollar things when it's done. The facts are what they are. In Iraq and Afghanistan, six or seven months are equal to 35 years of cancer funding.
A year ago you were talking about being governor of Texas. Still interested?
Governor of Texas. [Pause] It sounds pretty cool, but the reality is that it probably wouldn't be that cool. You put yourself out there, your family, your friends, your community. I still believe I'm more effective out of office. I try to be as apolitical as possible.
Is that hard for you?
Yeah. Harder and harder. Because I think that people's perception of me is that I am one thing. But I'm not.
What's that perception?
[Laughs] What did I just say? I'm apolitical. Readers can try to figure that out.
