Lance Armstrong Bikes

Lance Armstrong Rides in Style with Bikes Designed by World-Class Artists

by Rebecca Sacks @ vanityfair.com

Lance Armstrong has been vigorously Twittering from the Tour de France course, and those following his Tweets may have perked up at this July 7 message: “Just saw my new Trek Madone (for later in the race) that legendary artist Damien Hirst put his touches on. Speechless.”

Though this is not his first collaboration with an artist—two of the bikes Armstrong used in his 2005 Tour de France victory were customized with designs by legendary graffiti artist Futura—Armstrong’s involvement in the art world has reached new heights this year: he’s raced on bikes designed by graphic designer KAWS, Pop Surrealist Kenny Scharf, and contemporary artist Shepard Fairey, and during Stage one in the ongoing 2009 Tour de France, which started July 4 and ends July 26, he rode a Trek Speed Concept time trial bike crafted by industrial designer Marc Newson. Armstrong is set to ride the same model decorated by Japanese Pop artist Yoshitomo Nara during Stage 18 and will spin into Paris on the Tour’s final day on a Trek Madone customized by art-world bad boy Damien Hirst. (He is riding a different Trek Madone during the other stages of the race, so he’ll have ridden four bikes in total during the competition.) The artists do not construct the bikes, but they do, however, add their one-of-a-kind touches to the frames, wheels, and wheel discs.

COUNTERCULTURE CYCLIST. Lance Armstrong riding his Marc Newson–designed Trek bike.

At the end of the tour’s 21 stages, the Hirst and Newson art bikes will become late additions to the Nike-sponsored “Stages” art exhibition, which opens tomorrow at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, in Paris. (It kicks off tonight with a party at the gallery.) The exhibition, inspired by Armstrong’s battle against cancer, includes the art bikes created by KAWS, Scharf, and Fairey, but the 20 artists in the show focused mostly on Armstrong’s Livestrong message, rather than cycling. (Take, for example, Pop artist Ed Ruscha’s “Vital to the Core” piece in acrylic on linen.) The show will then move to the Park Avenue Armory, in New York City, this fall. The art is available for purchase, with proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

In March of this year, when announcing launch of “Stages,” Armstrong explained his desire to work with artists when he said, “I’ve kind of been a closet art collector. And in the last three years because I didn’t anything much to do other than run around with [Livestrong president Doug Ulman] and fight cancer, this art passion accelerated.” He went on to credit the involvement of Nike C.E.O. Mark Parker, who is a noted contemporary art collector. Armstrong said they “spent more time over the last three years talking about art than we spent talking about sports.”
Herewith, a sampling of Armstrong’s art bikes over the years.