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Lance Armstrong touches down in Scotland and invites everyone out for a ride – 300 turn upLance Armstrong Paisley invitation ride (Thanks GrantTod)

Lance Armstrong touches down in Scotland and invites everyone out for a ride – 300 turn up

Get on your bike and get over to Paisley… try and keep up
by Tony Farrelly
Tue, Aug 18, 2009 12:25
5

Lance Armstrong last night used the power of Twitter to invite scottish cyclists, and anybody else who's in the area to join him on a bike ride and at very short notice 300 turned up to join him for a ride.

A few hours after issuing the invite, Armstrong tweeted the meeting point and start time – noon from the Ashtree House Hotel, 9 Orr Square, Paisley.  As it turned out he was running a bit late… he tweeted that too.

Armstrong is in town to catch a U2 concert en-route to taking part in the Tour of Ireland which starts on Friday, he will then be hosting an international Livestrong cancer summit in Dublin Castle next week.

Before touching down in Scotland Armstrong quipped that he would be packing his rain gear –  a wise move, given the misty looking pics we've seen. The power of the web being what it is Armstrong said thatt the customs officers at Glasgow Airport were quizzing him about tomorrow's route…(lads, great though the powers of Lance are, a working knowledge of the road network around Paisley is probably expecting a bit much – he's from Texas). 

As predicted here, given the pulling power of Lance and the fact that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity it did turn out to be a very big ride indeed – imagine how many might have turned up if he's issued the invite for tomorrow… maybe the officers at the airport were right to ask him where he was going. To make a magical experience even more magical Lance wasn't even the only cycling legend on the ride the Flying Scotsman, Graeme Obree turned out too.

If you did go on the ride, let us know how you got on.

Thanks to GrantTod for the pic!

Scotland
Livestrong
Lance Armstrong
Glasgow
Tony Farrelly

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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5 comments

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shrinkinbggaz | 15 years ago
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LEGEND 4

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el.dudino | 15 years ago
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I was gutted to have had so much work on that I couldn't bail 20 , I'm sure the boss wouldn't have minded had I not been under the hammer. Och well, I'm glad people had a good time, even if I couldn't be there!

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Simon_MacMichael | 15 years ago
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I'm a bit gutted that I wasn't able to travel up for tonight's Champions League game between Celtic and Arsenal - I moved down from Scotland to London when I was seven, and support Celtic back home and Arsenal down here.

(On reflection, probably best I didn't go - a win-win or lose-lose game whichever way I cut it)

However, it would have been much, much worse if I'd taken my mate up on his offer of a lift and gone up there yesterday, only to find myself in Glasgow, sans bike, when Lance hit town.

Sounds like Paisley had its own version of Critical Mass today, though 4

ps Gotta feel for the guy on a certain other forum who actually lives in Paisley, but is working in Belfast at the moment...

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effemm | 15 years ago
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I was there! It was pissing down, and I did indeed get dropped. I don't think Lance was going *that* fast, but I'm not a regular group rider, and hurtling along windy roads in the rain at 20mph, inches from other cyclists gave me the willies. My "grupetto" lost touch with the lead group and returned to Paisley 15 minutes before Lance. I suspect we took a different route...

So I didn't see much of the great man, or exchange pleasantries while riding alongside him, but there was a good (and slightly surreal) vibe despite the rain. I think he was pretty surprised at the turnout. The local media were out too.

I managed a handshake though, a day out well worth skiving off work for.

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neilwheel | 15 years ago
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He might be tapering, so I won't show up and hurt his legs...

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