According to Lance Armstrong, the color yellow has taught him what it means to suffer.

Suffering hasn't come for Armstrong in a 125-mile-long stage of the Tour de France as he chases the customary yellow jersey of the tour's pack leader. His pain hasn't come from an exhaustively grueling trek throughout the race's brutal stages in the French Alps. And, even when Armstrong rides out of those mountains with a tour victory in sight and the yellow jersey on his back, it yields no suffering for him.

Armstrong's suffering came before all of that. And a thick, yellow rubber band he wears around his wrist. Imprinted on the band is "Livestrong," a motto of determination and sacrifice that Armstrong has embodied in each of his six Tour de France victories - his most recent coming on Sunday. Every time Armstrong looks at this rubber-band, he's reminded of what real suffering means.

Real suffering is defeating testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. Suffering is being told he had a 50 percent chance of living, let alone of being a competitive cyclist again. Suffering to Lance Armstrong means being told he would never have a chance at his goal. The color yellow, though, means being confronted with that possibility and then denying it six times over. The color yellow taught Armstrong how to suffer, but it has taught everyone else what suffering and dedication can really mean.

Yellow is also Armstrong's color of transcendence, the transition of athletic dominance to irrefutable greatness. For six straight years now, Armstrong has looked his every challenge in the eye - doping allegations, the ramifications of living cancer-free, a troubling divorce - and responded by living stronger than any of us. Every challenge defeated, every road block bested - that's why Armstrong is better than dominant.

Yellow is to suffer, but yellow isn't to concede. The yellow "Livestrong" band around Lance Armstrong's wrist is our reminder of that.