Lance Armstrong bicycled into the sunset yesterday after clinching his seventh consecutive victory in the Tour of France, having set a worthy, albeit complex, example for his admirers around the world. Complex because there are threads in Mr. Armstrong’s story that have intertwined to create the hero who has captured our imaginations.

First is his resilience, as demonstrated by his victory over the cancer that had threatened his life. Yet this trait, admirable as it would be alone, has been animated by Mr. Armstrong’s remarkable determination. For him, surviving has not been enough. Nor, for that matter, has merely competing sufficed, as John P. Avlon noted in these pages on Friday. Mr. Armstrong is shamelessly ambitious, and has set about winning the Tour of France with an obsessive attention to perfecting his craft. This stands as a reminder that even an inborn talent must be nurtured and honed in order truly to shine.

In an age that has started to believe its own psychobabble about how playing the game should be enough to give everyone the warm fuzzies, Mr. Armstrong also reminds us that winning means something after all. Although his personal triumphs are inspiring, he would be a mere footnote in history had he not earned a place on the winner’s podium. Instead, he has made history. And not coincidentally, during the course of his Tour career he has won the hearts of a French public that greeted him coolly during his first summers in their midst, heartwarming bio notwithstanding.