Except for those people watching the Outdoor Life Network or making to the back of the newspaper's sports section, past the Major League baseball and professional golf stories, most people are unaware of the approaching end of the one of the most remarkable sports accomplishments in history. American bicyclist Lance Armstrong is poised to win his seventh consecutive Tour de France.

The Tour, ranked as the biggest annual sporting competition in the world, features some of the best conditioned athletes on the planet pushing themselves for three weeks over the French countryside, including punishing climbs in both the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges.

Armstrong's remarkable accomplishments are well- understood by the estimated 2 billion people following the Tour on one of 78 television channels broadcasting the race world wide. But to many Americans, his accomplishments remain only vaguely familiar - and generally under-appreciated.

If Armstrong maintains his lead position and stands as the Tour victor in Paris this weekend for the seventh straight year, he will have capped off his career with a domination of his sport that is unmatched. The Tour de France is the premier cycling event in the world and his string of victories should be seen as unlikely as one golfer winning the Masters Tournament seven years in a row, or the same professional football team winning the Super Bowl for seven years straight.

Competing cyclists from all over the world have tried to knock off Armstrong, but his individual athletic prowess and mental toughness, aided by an outstanding group of fellow riders on the Discovery Channel team, has survived every challenge this year - and for every other year going back to 1999.

To many casual observers, Armstrong's accomplishments don't register because he's just riding a bike, just like Tiger Woods just whacks a golf ball.

As unlikely as Armstrong's accomplishments are for any elite athlete in any sport, his potentially fatal battle with testicular cancer in 1996 makes his string of Tour victories all the more remarkable. The treatment to eliminate the cancer, that had spread to his stomach, lungs and brain, could have killed Armstrong or left him a broken man. Instead, he defeated the cancer, that at one point gave him a 50-percent chance of survival. He not only survived the cancer but the life-threatening illness inspired him to go on to rebuild his life, his racing career and, in the process, inspire millions of people around the world stricken with cancer.

If Armstrong stands atop the podium in Paris wearing the victor's yellow jersey, he will have capped an unparalleled athletic career. And despite his plan to retire from professional cycling after this year's Tour, Armstrong will no doubt remain in the public eye and continue to inspire and amaze.