Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong commits to RAGBRAI event in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa – Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong says he’ll return to his bike later this month for a state-long trek across Iowa.

Armstrong tells the Des Moines Register (http://dmreg.co/19V5mEa ) that he and staffers from his Austin, Texas-based bicycle shop will ride for “three or four days” in RAGBRAI, an annual event sponsored by the newspaper that runs from the Missouri to Mississippi rivers.

This will mark the fifth visit to RAGGRAI for Armstrong, who told interviewer Oprah Winfrey in January after years of denials that he doped for all seven of his Tour de France wins from 1999-2005.

Armstrong says his impending trip to Iowa isn’t a statement or an experiment. He says he simply wants to ride with what is typically “a friendly group of people that share the same interests.”