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Aspen Police respond to complaint about Lance Armstrong vs George Hincapie bike race (+ video)

Pair were being filmed going head-to-head in mountain bike race in Aspen on Sunday

A resident of Aspen, Colorado, lodged a complaint with police about the filming of a mountain bike race between Lance Armstrong and his former US Postal Service team-mate George Hincapie, prompting officers to launch an investigation.

On the same day the Tour de France was concluding in Paris, the pair raced each other on the route of the Aspen Fifty, the annual mountain bike race launched in 2016 by Armstrong, who has a home in Aspen and spends much of his time there, some of which takes place on public roads.

The Aspen Times reports Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn as saying that a complaint was made about a camera truck that was filming the two riders by a resident of Hopkins Avenue.

He added that the driver of the truck subsequently apologised to police, and that officers had not spoken to either Armstrong or Hincapie.

Yesterday, Armstrong said that the truck had been some distance in front of himself and Hincapie as it filmed them, but he did not notice anything untoward.

“If something inappropriate happened, I would be apologising profoundly,” he said Armstrong. “I got no idea.”

The newspaper said that it had received an email from a resident who claimed – without mentioning the camera truck – that the race “almost took out my twin dogs and houseguests.” It added that it had been unable to obtain further comment.  

Armstrong has tweeted a brief trailer for the race, which will be made available to subscribers to his podcast channel in the coming days.

Hincapie rode alongside Armstrong in all seven editions of the Tour de France that the Texan won between 1999 and 2005, and has been a guest over the past three weeks on his ex-team leader’s The Move podcast, which has provided daily coverage of this year’s 106th edition of the race.

In October 2012, Armstrong was stripped of those seven victories and handed a lifetime ban by the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA). Hincapie, who gave evidence to the investigation, was himself banned for six months, although he had retired in August of that year.

Three months earlier, Hincapie had been given the honour of leading the peloton onto the Champs-Elysées during the final stage of the Tour de France, ahead of Team Sky and overall winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, to mark his record-breaking 17th participation in the race.

His appearance record was subsequently matched by Stuart O’Grady and Jens Voigt before being broken last year by Sylvain Chavanel.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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21 comments

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alansmurphy | 4 years ago
0 likes

Jackson - you're right, an average grand tour rider then. He could put some power down on a flat course I suppose!

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Waldemar03 | 4 years ago
2 likes

Alansmurphy - just how daft are you. Yes, Xena is aware that Armstrong admitted to doping. As is the rest of the world. What we are all aware of as well (except for you apparently) is that most if not all competitors and Teams have also admitted to doping. (What was the average? about 18 deep in any given race?) Not saying that its ok but Armstrongs era was the pinnacle of doping in the sport and Lance just happened to have been the best at it. It didnt help that he was an arrogant SOB and an American. The sport has been since inception rife with drug usage; thats his point.  Xena even points out post-doping "clean" riders who climbed the same peaks at faster times. but you ignore it all. Hate Lance if you want but sweetie, please stay offline.
 

 

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alansmurphy replied to Waldemar03 | 4 years ago
1 like
Waldemar03 wrote:

Alansmurphy - just how daft are you. Yes, Xena is aware that Armstrong admitted to doping. As is the rest of the world. What we are all aware of as well (except for you apparently) is that most if not all competitors and Teams have also admitted to doping. (What was the average? about 18 deep in any given race?) Not saying that its ok but Armstrongs era was the pinnacle of doping in the sport and Lance just happened to have been the best at it. It didnt help that he was an arrogant SOB and an American. The sport has been since inception rife with drug usage; thats his point.  Xena even points out post-doping "clean" riders who climbed the same peaks at faster times. but you ignore it all. Hate Lance if you want but sweetie, please stay offline.
 

 

It's nice that you speak for Xena but clearly I wanted to know why it was important that they protect a legacy that is not worthy of protecting. There was surely one clean rider so it is they that should have the issue. It was a characteristically aggressive rant about a human not worth defending. The comments about riders beating those times are at best stupid, sporting performance has improved in pretty much every aspect, how many records are 30 plus years old.

Not sure why anyone wants to defend the indefensible - lance was an awful human being and an average bike rider. End of.

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Jackson replied to alansmurphy | 4 years ago
1 like
alansmurphy wrote:

Not sure why anyone wants to defend the indefensible - lance was an awful human being and an average bike rider. End of.

Lance was the '93 world champ aged 21, well before he got on the hot sauce. There's just no measure by which he was an "average bike rider".

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Htc replied to Jackson | 4 years ago
1 like
Jackson wrote:
alansmurphy wrote:

Not sure why anyone wants to defend the indefensible - lance was an awful human being and an average bike rider. End of.

Lance was the '93 world champ aged 21, well before he got on the hot sauce. There's just no measure by which he was an "average bike rider".

Completely agree. Regardless of the doping he is still one of the best riders ever to have lived.

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daturaman replied to Htc | 4 years ago
2 likes
Htc wrote:
Jackson wrote:
alansmurphy wrote:

Not sure why anyone wants to defend the indefensible - lance was an awful human being and an average bike rider. End of.

Lance was the '93 world champ aged 21, well before he got on the hot sauce. There's just no measure by which he was an "average bike rider".

Completely agree. Regardless of the doping he is still one of the best riders ever to have lived.

 

What utter cock.

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alansmurphy | 4 years ago
8 likes

Do you need a hug Xena?

 

You are aware that Lance has admitted he's a cheat, actually won nothing clean. The rest of your rant is just conjecture.

 

Let it go sweetie!

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Boss Hogg replied to alansmurphy | 4 years ago
2 likes
alansmurphy wrote:

Do you need a hug Xena?

 

You are aware that Lance has admitted he's a cheat, actually won nothing clean. The rest of your rant is just conjecture.

 

Let it go sweetie!

So, what's your argument exactly? Are you trying to say something?

 

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The_Vermonter | 4 years ago
5 likes

Aspen is a haven for uber-rich douchebags. Whoever phoned the police is an uber-rich douchebag.

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Rapha Nadal | 4 years ago
4 likes

Slow news day in Aspen.

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handlebarcam | 4 years ago
6 likes

Who cares about two old cheats pissing off one of their neighbours? As long as he is still banned, and the Tours he stole remain stripped from the record books, I care so little about Armstrong I'm just going to stop typing in mid-

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Xena replied to handlebarcam | 4 years ago
4 likes
handlebarcam wrote:

Who cares about two old cheats pissing off one of their neighbours? As long as he is still banned, and the Tours he stole remain stripped from the record books, I care so little about Armstrong I'm just going to stop typing in mid-

Absoulte fucking bullshit .who did Armstrong steal the tour from then ? Oh was it all the other riders he was racing against who have also been subsequently found guilty of doping ? 

Unless you didn’t dope and he stopped you winning the tour every other mother fucker racing was doping .  Look you don’t like the guy obviously, but he doped just  like all the others infact team mobile  ‘ jan ulrich and co and a few other teams doped a lot more sophisticated. 

And I suppose the times of Porte and Froome up the col d madone  quicker than a doped up Armstrong’s are due to their special marginal gain socks . Seriously,riders are still getting caught doping today and they are riders getting their ass kicked by the big boys Froome , Quintana , Pinot etc etc. If you know anything about doping (and you obviously don’t )you would know that is not possible.  So just say “ I hate Armstrong “ that your entitled to but to call him a cheat when everyone else was doing the same thing and their subsequent busts have proved this is fucking bullshit .  Oh yeah and if your a real cycling fan and know your history, then you would know that riders have been cheating from day one ,over a hundred years ago , and do you think a “drugged up to the eyeballs “ Tommy Simpson is a hero.  I hazard a guess and bet you do . I’ve been up the ventoux and I aint stopping and paying respects to a man so selfish  as to basically kill himself  riding a bike  by doping  i.e taking drugs and leaving loved ones behind . How is it he’s a hero and Armstrong is treated like a murderer . Hypocrisy fucking hypocrisy for  the love of some romantic cycling fairy tale .  It’s a tragedy what happened to Simpson  but he’s no fucking hero just a man who lost all perspective .  “It’s just a fucking bike race “   

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to handlebarcam | 4 years ago
2 likes
handlebarcam wrote:

Who cares about two old cheats pissing off one of their neighbours? As long as he is still banned, and the Tours he stole remain stripped from the record books, I care so little about Armstrong I'm just going to stop typing in mid-

So how many tours did Merckx steal, he got caught in an era of limited testing three times at big races incl TdF, for the period that's systematic doping, you honestly think that was isolated? What about Hinault, Moser, Indurain, LeMond (who said he could have taken 15 minutes on Zimmerman on D'Huez!), how many did they steal through doping, people like you are ignorant as fuck!

I care so little about sytematic dopers like all the names above I'm

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daturaman replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 4 years ago
0 likes
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
handlebarcam wrote:

Who cares about two old cheats pissing off one of their neighbours? As long as he is still banned, and the Tours he stole remain stripped from the record books, I care so little about Armstrong I'm just going to stop typing in mid-

So how many tours did Merckx steal, he got caught in an era of limited testing three times at big races incl TdF, for the period that's systematic doping, you honestly think that was isolated? What about Hinault, Moser, Indurain, LeMond (who said he could have taken 15 minutes on Zimmerman on D'Huez!), how many did they steal through doping, people like you are ignorant as fuck!

I care so little about sytematic dopers like all the names above I'm

 

Where's your evidence that Lemond doped? And you call others ignorant?

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Jackson | 4 years ago
5 likes

I think it's great to see these two legends knocking sh*t out of each other pushing 50.

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Bmblbzzz | 4 years ago
4 likes

Probably most controversial thing here is "all seven editions of the Tour de France that the Texan won." But we'd best not comment on that, it's just clickbait!angel

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sammutd88 replied to Bmblbzzz | 4 years ago
3 likes
Bmblbzzz wrote:

Probably most controversial thing here is "all seven editions of the Tour de France that the Texan won." But we'd best not comment on that, it's just clickbait!angel

 

Without going off topic and causing a debate over right and wrong, I have no issue with it. He was clearly just the best of all the juiced up riders at the time. He just got caught.

 

Nowadays, if it's all clean, the only right thing is that everyone is clean, but back then it was so rife that who really cares. It sure was entertaining!

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javi_polo replied to sammutd88 | 4 years ago
1 like
sammutd88 wrote:

It sure was entertaining!

Was it? I remember the Indurain era as entertaining (but I'm Spanish so I might be biased), and the Riis/Ullrich/Pantani Tours as a lot of fun, a "changing of the guard" kind of thing.

The Amstrong years, however... except maybe for the 1999 (which I would include among the "changing of the guard" Tours) and 2003 (where one could realistically see Ullrich dethroning Armstrong) editions, they were boring as hell.

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Boss Hogg replied to javi_polo | 4 years ago
0 likes
javi_polo wrote:
sammutd88 wrote:

It sure was entertaining!

Was it? I remember the Indurain era as entertaining (but I'm Spanish so I might be biased), and the Riis/Ullrich/Pantani Tours as a lot of fun, a "changing of the guard" kind of thing.

The Amstrong years, however... except maybe for the 1999 (which I would include among the "changing of the guard" Tours) and 2003 (where one could realistically see Ullrich dethroning Armstrong) editions, they were boring as hell.

So, you're saying Pantani and Ullrich were clean?

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javi_polo replied to Boss Hogg | 4 years ago
1 like
Boss Hogg wrote:

So, you're saying Pantani and Ullrich were clean?

No (may I respectfully ask where did you understand that from my message?).

I just said that Lance's Tour victories were very boring, and that I did enjoy earlier Tours better.

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srchar | 4 years ago
5 likes

"twin dogs" says it all.

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