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Lance Armstrong may have won a record seven consecutive Tour de France cycling titles, but he says he hopes his greatest life achievement is being a good father.

The former cycling champ, cancer survivor and philanthropist was in Toronto this week to promote his line of Livestrong fitness equipment at a local Canadian Tire outlet.

He told Canada AM's Marci Ien that while he's as dedicated as ever to fitness and eradicating cancer, he wants his legacy to be that he was a great parent to his five children.

"That is the one thing I cannot afford to screw up… the one thing I could never mess up is the lives of these five kids. So that's No. 1," Armstrong said.

"No. 2 is to ultimately defeat this disease (cancer) in our lifetime. And then something about cycling. But it's a distant third," he said.

Armstrong spent the better part of 25 years dedicated to cycling and though he does miss it, he doesn't miss the stress, the travel and being away form his family for weeks at a time.

He is now focused on competing in triathlons, noting, "There are other ways to fulfill competitive urges."

Armstrong is, of course, not only famous as an athlete but as a cancer crusader and cancer survivor. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 25 after the cancer had already spread to his brain and lungs. Though his prognosis was originally poor, he went on to beat the disease.

Now 15 years later, he admits that the life-changing effects of those years have sort of "softened."

"It certainly changed me as a person, it changed me as a parent, as a friend. You don't take anything for granted, especially those first couple of years. Every sunset becomes the best sunset you've ever seen, every traffic jam is absolutely nothing," he said.

"But as you get 10, 15 years down the road, I have to admit… that impatience comes back… you start to lose that crystal clear perspective you used to have in those first years after, when you have no idea what's going to happen and you're just waiting to know, ‘Am I going to be given life back?'"