By Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - SportPERHAPS WE don't need another sporting hero in our lifetimes. We've really been too spoilt already.
Anybody aged around 40 has, in the blossoming of the sports television era, been able to see athletes as good as any ever.
Muhammad Ali, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Joe Montana, Mark Spitz, Ian Thorpe, Barry Bonds, Carl Lewis, Marion Jones and so on and on ...
A more than fair argument could be made that we live in the era of the greatest sportsmen as each of the above could make a solid argument claiming to be the best of all-time in their disciplines ... and they are just the tip of the iceberg.
There is another who ranks in that lusty pantheon but because his sport is not widely embraced in his home country, his Herculean efforts may never be fully appreciated - at least by his fellow Americans.
Texan Lance Armstrong rides a pushbike to make a living and works for the U.S. Postal Service. However, he doesn't deliver mail; he collects Tour de France championships.
On Sunday, Armstrong clinched his fifth straight title in one of the most gruelling sports man has invented. Only four others have won cycling's tour de force that many times and Spain's Miguel Indurain (another latter day great) is the only one of them to have done it five straight years in a row.
The Tour de France is no leisurely ride through the French countryside. This year the riders covered 20 stages in 23 days for a total distance of 3,247.5 kilometres or 2,130 miles.
Imagine riding from Kingston to Negril with about five Spur Tree Hills in the way and you have a tiny idea of what it's like when the Tour riders get into the back and spirit-breaking French Alps and Pyrenees stages.
Throw in falls, Armstrong tumbled at least twice this year and took an impromptu trip through the countryside to avoid another crash on a treacherous downhill dash, and you get the idea this is not a race for the faint-hearted. Riders die in this human version of chess on wheels - the most recent about two years ago. This year's overall fourth-placed finisher Tyler Hamilton of the US finished with a broken collarbone he sustained in the second stage!
Of course, Lance's story is more than just about pedal-pushing. He nearly died from cancer in 1996 when the dreaded disease spread from his testicles to his lungs and brain and he was given only a 50 per cent chance of pulling through.
On Sunday he drank champagne and celebrated life and his fifth yellow jersey and most of the world - familiar with cycling - celebrated the legend in its midst.
There's always room for another hero.
