Lance Armstrong to Ride in RAGBRAI

Disgraced bicyclist Lance Armstrong will make his first major public appearance since admitting to doping, at RAGBRAI, the famous Iowa bicycle race this month.

Armstrong won, and has been stripped of, seven Tour De France titles when he admitted to doping to win six of the titles. Armstrong stated in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he did not use anything to win his final title in 2005, though that has been disputed by the USADA.

RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) will be in Council Bluffs on July 20 for the kick off event the night before the race begins and plans to spend 'three or four days' biking across Iowa to "ride my bike with what in the past has been a friendly group of people that share the same interests."

"I'm well aware my presence is not an easy topic, and so I encourage people if they want to give a high five, great," he said. "If you want to shoot me the bird, that's OK, too."

He called himself a "realist."

"I'm a big boy, and so I made the bed, I get to sleep in it."

Armstrong will be one of an estimated 10,000 cyclists participating in RAGBRAI July 21-27, 2013.