Armstrong shares the importance of cycling to children at fundraiser

Childhood attraction, not the competitive juices, got Lance Armstrong started in cycling.

“I grew up taking the bicycle for granted,” Armstrong said Thursday night at a fundraiser in Colorado Springs. “I didn’t really learn how to ride it until the girl next door who was the same age as me learned how to ride it. That day, I rode.”

Armstrong spoke for about 15 minutes at The Broadmoor during a dinner to raise money for Kids on Bikes, a Colorado Springs nonprofit organization.

Since its 2005 inception, Kids on Bikes has provided nearly 400 new bikes to children in the Pikes Peak region. Through the program, children also have received bike locks and helmets.

The seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, who retired in July 2005, received a thunderous applause from more than 500 people after his longtime coach, Chris Carmichael of Colorado Springs-based Carmichael Training Systems, introduced him as a former Palmer High School student.

“Yep, Palmer High School,” Armstrong said with a laugh. “My good buddy, (ESPN anchor) Chris Fowler, who is here tonight, went to Palmer High School. Neither he nor I are the most famous that ever went there. Elvira (actress Cassandra Peterson) went to Palmer High School.”

Armstrong, 35, attended Palmer in the late 1980s after he joined the U.S. cycling developmental team, which was headquartered at the Olympic Training Center, and later earned his diploma from a private school.

He urged parents to buy their kids bikes because of the “freedom” it gives children during their early development.

“A child needs a bicycle. A child needs to experience that sense of freedom,” said Armstrong, whose six autographed paintings were auctioned at the fundraiser for $1,150 apiece.

“Without the bike, my life would not have been the same. ... The bicycle enabled me to share that story (of overcoming cancer) with the rest of the world. Without it, nobody would have paid attention.”

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