Going Postal has a new, happier connotation after American Lance Armstrong of U.S. Postal Service Team won the Tour de France last weekend. It merely states the obvious to say that his feat — winning just 33 months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer — was astonishing. But, in addition to the personal triumph over disease and difficult terrain, Mr. Armstrong’s ride showed that a hero can emerge in and, perhaps, save a sport that seems determined to self-destruct.

Last year’s race was rocked by a drug and blood-doping scandal, then a boycott by riders protesting the consequent disqualifications. This year, the French press and even some French team doctors launched a shameless innuendo attack against the clean-cut, likeable Texan. No wonder tour director Jean Marie LeBlanc breathed a hefty sigh of relief when Mr. Armstrong cruised past the Arc de Triomphe.

After determining that Mr. Armstrong’s cancer had spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain, doctors gave him a 50 percent chance of survival. He received four courses of chemotherapy and underwent two surgeries in which 12 tumors were removed. Armstrong had been one of cycling’s rising stars prior to his illness, but no sponsors were willing to take a chance on his comeback from cancer until the U.S. Postal Service, not normally associated with being fast, stepped up and hired him to ride.

The Tour de France is a bike race 2,290 miles long over 23 days, much of it through the French Alps. Imagine running a marathon a day, or more to home, hiking up and down Mt. Katahdin every day for three weeks. Now imagine doing it after you just recovered from a near-fatal illness.

Last summer, the nation was treated to Mark McGwire hitting 70 home runs, loving his son, and sharing the media attention with his foundation for child abuse prevention. Like McGwire, Armstrong is wiser than his years and established the Lance Armstrong Foundation, an educational and fund-raising foundation to fight all forms of cancer. He uses the opportunity his racing success brings to speak about the advances in cancer treatment and encourage those have the disease.

So in the middle of our yearly Red Sox swoon, a year in which an injured Cindy Blodgett can’t help us enjoy the hazy days, Lance Armstrong has reminded us of the capacity of sport, even a sport rife with problems, to testify to the strength and nobility of the human spirit. And just think, the U.S. Postal Service made it possible. Thank your local mail carrier the next time you get a chance.