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Lance Armstrong (United States) Cycling, 38
Record seven-time winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong made his comeback to the race in 2009 after a four year absence. Even more remarkably he had broken his collarbone in March after a crash in one of his warm-up events, the Vuelta Castilla y Leon in Spain, and had needed corrective surgery, but he was still able to recover in time to take part in the Tour in which he finished third, behind the winner, his Astana team-mate Alberto Contador. Armstrong said that his comeback had been inspired by his desire to raise national awareness of cancer, which he had fought and beaten in the late 1990s.