Lance Armstrong has bikes worth more than $100,000 stolen in storage unit burglary

Two men have been charged with burglary in Austin, Texas after allegedly stealing bikes valued at more than $100,000 from disgraced former professional cyclist, Lance Armstrong.

The Austin-American Statesman reports that according to arrest affidavits issued by police, the pair broke into a storage unit operated by Extra Space Storage and used by the ex-US Postal rider next to the Capital of Texas Highway in Austin on the morning of Sunday 10 December, and stole six bikes, collectively valued at $105,800, during the day.

The individual value of the bikes taken, which police ascertained with the help of Armstrong’s executive assistant Dave Bolch, as well as Jeffrey Rosenberg, who runs sports memorabilia business Tristar Productions, ranged from $500 for a frame to $50,000 for a bike that had been used in races and triathlons.

The latter is far from the most valuable bike Armstrong ever rode, however. That distinction goes to a unique butterfly-adorned Trek Madone he rode on the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France, the work of British artist Damien Hirst, which subsequently raised $500,000 at auction for the LiveStrong Foundation.

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The two accused, 33-year-old Ethan Harms and Shaun Thompson, aged 36, were reported to have been linked by police to other burglaries, including one at a separate storage unit, and could each face up to 10 years in prison, as well as fines of $10,000, says the newspaper.

Now aged 52, Armstrong won seven successive Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005 after recovering from cancer, riding for US Postal Service, renamed Discovery Channel following a change of sponsor ahead of the 2004 edition.

The LiveStrong Foundation he set up to raise awareness of cancer meant that Armstrong’s fame transcended sport and made him a household name worldwide, with the charity’s signature yellow wristbands near-ubiquitous, but even from the first of those Tour de France victories he faced accusations of doping, which he vehemently denied.

He retired following his seventh Tour de France win in 2005, but returned to the race four years later with Astana, finishing third behind team mate-cum-rival Alberto Contador and runner-up Andy Schleck.

The following year, riding for RadioShack, proved to be his final participation in the race and by now he was the subject of a federal investigation into allegations of doping.

Armstrong continued to insist that he had ridden clean throughout his career and had not cheated his way to those seven yellow jerseys, but in 2012 the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA) banned him from competitive sport for life and stripped him of results including his Tour de France victories after establishing that he was at the centre of a doping ring at US Postal.

His ban resulted in him losing multi-million dollar sponsorships from companies including Nike and Oakley, and in January 2013, Armstrong finally made a confession, albeit limited, of his doping in a two-part television interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Since 2017, he has hosted The Move podcast, which includes coverage of the Tour de France, although race owners ASO have made it clear in no uncertain terms that he is persona non grata whenever the prospect of him visiting the event in person is raised.

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