(July 10 update — Dates announced for Armstrong's ride) Lance Armstrong won't be cycling shoulder-to-shoulder with members of the Tour de France peloton in July; he'll be crunched in a mass of more than 8,000 RAGBRAI cyclists.
The retired Tour de France champion has confirmed he'll ride in one or more days of the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa that runs July 23-29.
Armstrong told the Des Moines Register, the event's sponsor for 34 years:
This wouldn’t be a one-year commitment. We’d obviously want to be back next year if we behave ourselves.”
The 400-plus mile ride across Iowa is many things for many people; for one segment it is a rolling party across the state. Armstrong, known to imbibe his native state's Shiner long-neck beers, should enjoy himself.
What other notables have ridden RAGBRAI? Presidential candidate Howard Dean, TV personality Tom Arnold and — a fellow Tour de France winner whom Armstrong has issues with — Greg LeMond.
It's great that Armstrong will ride in RAGBRAI. He probably needs to chill out and take a bike ride just for the fun of it. But I'd like to warn other RAGBRAI riders not to get their hopes up:
I rode in the first three Ride for the Roses in Austin, beginning in 1997. The only time I could say I rode with Lance was toward the end of my metric century when a group of high-octane cyclists with motorcycle escort passed us. For a fleeting second, I was riding in the same group with Lance. However, I never saw him. Not once in all three years.
Armstrong is planning to encourage Iowans to question presidential candidates about cancer funding in advance of the 2008 caucuses.
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