Lance rides to seventh heaven

Over the next eight days, in the buildup to the world's biggest sporting event, Cyclingnews will be taking a look at the Tour de France in all its glory with a series of short movies. We start with a look back on the domination that was Lance Armstrong.

We all know the story, Lance Armstrong is diagnosed with cancer, overcomes the impossible to come back from the brink of death to beat the disease, gets back on his bike and proceeds to annihilate the rest of the pro Peloton in his typical "thanks for coming" fashion to no less than seven consecutive Tours de France.

We take a look back over those seven tours spanning from 1999 until 2005, when Lance retired, undefeated, on the final day of the tour. The movie remembers all of Lances Tour wins, from the first in 1999 when only in his second season post cancer; he dominated the race taking all three time trails as well as the first mountain stage to Sestrières, to beat Alex Zülle.

Over the next six years the challengers changed, all taking their chances to beat the dominant Armstrong, but one by one Ullrich, Beloki, Klöden and Basso fell by the wayside as the American silenced all his critics to take 18 more stages on his way to an unprecedented seven tours.

Click here to view the video.