Cycling: Floyd Landis hailed the patience and persistence that his parents instilled in him in his youth as he swept to victory in the Tour de France to become the first winner in the post-Lance Armstrong era.
The 30-year-old American came home 57 seconds ahead of Spaniard Oscar Pereiro for one of the slimmest margins of victory in the race's history.
Landis, though, had demonstrated all the traits of a winner when he dug in the Alps over the final few days of the 2,000-plus mile race.
"My parents taught me that hard work and patience are some of the most important things in getting what you want," said the Phonak team rider whose parents raised him in the strict Mennonite Christian tradition in Pennsylvania.
"It took me a long time in my life to learn patience, but that, and persistence, are the lessons I learned in this race."
Landis appeared to have blown his chances on stage 16 when he was left in the wake of his rivals in the Alps and was eight minutes and eight seconds adrift of Pereiro, who had taken his race leader's yellow jersey.
However, the following day Landis destroyed the opposition to win the 17th stage and close to within 30 seconds of Pereiro, whom he passed to reclaim the yellow jersey on Saturday.
There was never any realistic danger of him losing the jersey on Sunday on a hazard-free flat ride to the race's traditional finishing point on the Champs Elysees.
The win for Landis also helped Le Tour turn the page on the doping scandals that had overshadowed the build-up to the race which had seen pre-race favourite Ivan Basso of Italy and Germany's 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich thrown out after being linked in the media with a Spanish investigation.
German T-Mobile team ended a traumatic Tour by winning the team prize - days earlier the team had sacked Ullrich and team-mate Oscar Sevilla.
Australia's Rob McEwen won the green jersey for best points rider while Denmark's Mickael Rasmussen was "king of the mountains" and landed the red polka dot jersey for best climber.
Italy's Damiano Cunego was crowned best young rider while victory in Sunday's final stage went to Norway's Thor Hushovd, who also won the opening prologue.