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Lance Armstrong ended his racing career today in brilliant fashion by capturing his seventh Tour de France title in a row. Armstrong won the race by 4 minutes and 40 seconds over runner-up Ivan Basso. Third place went to Jan Ullrich, who finished 6 minutes and 21 seconds behind Armstrong. The final leg of the Tour consists of a ride into Paris down the famed Champs-Elysees boulevard. This part of the race is traditionally taken at a slower pace, and serves as a triumphant victory ride for the winner. This year, the last leg was actually cut short due to some bad weather. The Tour de France organizers officially ended the race with the pack still about 30 miles outside of Paris in order to ensure the safety of the riders on the wet roads.

It's great that Armstrong will be able to go out on top. Not many athletes can make that claim. A lot of them hang on for a few years too long, which ends up tarnishing their legendary accomplishments just a bit. When I think of people who have truly gone out on top, I think of John Elway, who retired as a two-time Super Bowl champion. His final game was Super Bowl XXXIII, in which he was named MVP. You can't do any better than that in pro football. Pete Sampras also went out on top, but in a slightly different way. Sampras won the 2002 U.S. Open, which was his record-setting 14th major title. He didn't announce his retirement there and then, but he ended up withdrawing from every tournament the next season, and officially retired at the U.S. Open a year later. Now I will always think of Lance Armstrong along with guys like Elway and Sampras.

It's much easier to come up with athletes who played too long. Michael Jordan immediately comes to mind. Jordan retired once, then came back and led the Chicago Bulls to three more NBA championships before retiring again. At that point, if Jordan had stayed retired, he would have had the kind of career that movies are made of. But he decided to try playing one more time, and had a couple of less-than-stellar seasons with the Washington Wizards. Jerry Rice is another athlete whose performances declined dramatically in the last years of his career.

I have a lot of respect for Lance Armstrong. He could very easily stick around on Team Discovery Channel and ride several more Tour de France races just to collect a paycheck. He has one of the top names in cycling, and he could definitely milk his star power for all that it's worth. But he is a true champion. His competitive side wouldn't allow him to do anything but go all out for the win. The only blight on his career is the persistent rumor of doping. But since Lance has taken and passed countless drug tests in the past 7 years, I would have to say that's a problem that lies with the critics, and not with Armstrong himself.

Congratulations, Lance. You've had a career that mere mortals can only dream of.