Dale Strode / The Aspen Times
A good-natured bike race challenge Sunday between former cycling teammates Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie prompted a visit by Aspen police officers.
Hincapie, who’s been a guest on Armstrong’s Tour de France-related podcast this month in Aspen, and his former teammate have been talking about racing each other on the route that makes up Armstrong’s annual Aspen Fifty mountain bike race in September.
The challenge occurred Sunday morning and the two spoke a bit about the experience during The Move podcast later that day. At least some of the race was shot by a film crew, though the two men declined to say who won during Sunday’s podcast.
Aspen police received a complaint from a resident of Hopkins Avenue about noon Sunday concerning a camera truck following or leading the two men as they raced down the street, said Assistant Chief Bill Linn. The complaint was about the actions of the camera truck, not the bike riders, he said.
Officers later contacted the driver of the camera truck, who apologized, Linn said. No warning was issued and officers didn’t speak with Armstrong or Hincapie, he said.
Armstrong said Monday that the truck filming him and Hincapie was a good distance in front of them using a camera with a long lens. He said he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary occur.
“If something inappropriate happened, I would be apologizing profoundly,” said Armstrong, a part-time Aspen resident. “I got no idea.”
Armstrong said the race’s results should be posted online in the next couple of days.
In an email to The Aspen Times, a resident said the race “almost took out my twin dogs and houseguests,” though it doesn’t mention a truck. An attempt to reach the resident for further comment was not successful.