Catch ya next time, Mr. Armstrong

It sorta sucks lurking on the periphery of L.A.'s cycling community.

I'm working on getting back into the spin of things, but it's taking time. Meanwhile, I missed out on participating in an event that L.A. cyclists are buzzing feverishly about today.

On Wednesday, Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong tweeted this message to his followers on Twitter: "Hey LA - get out of your cars and get on your bikes. Time to ride. 7:30 tomorrow am. Griffith Park, LA Zoo parking lot. See you there."

I didn't learn about Armstrong's visit till this morning as I was scanning Facebook posts before heading to the office. If I had jumped into my cycling gear right that minute and hopped aboard my bike, I would have been able to make it to Griffith Park to join him, but I would have had a lot of 'splaining to do to my boss when I arrived late for work.

Luckily, it appears that a handful of my cycling friends did ride with Lance Armstrong this morning —along with a few hundred other riders— and will be chattering about it for some time to come. One of my friends says that she even got Armstrong's autograph on something that looks like a purse. (From the photo posted on Facebook, it looks like he signed his name in Farsi.)

Would Lance have agreed to autograph my G-tube? I probably will never know. He already has left L.A., and is tweeting from Quebec.


Lance Armstrong visits Griffith Park