Cyclist quits Le Tour in Lance Armstrong protest

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. Pic: Joel Sage/AFP/Getty Images

A CYCLIST from the Capital has withdrawn from her sport’s toughest charity challenge in protest at being asked to ride alongside drugs cheat Lance Armstrong.

Nicki Aitken, 36, said she did not want to take part in Le Tour - One Day Ahead after it emerged Armstrong had been invited to participate.

Le Tour sees riders take on the world-famous Tour De France course the day before professional cyclists in a bid to raise money for charity.

Armstrong won the Tour De France seven times between 1999 and 2005 but was stripped of his titles after a doping scandal.

Ms Aitken said she would organise her own events to continue towards a target of raising £50,000 for research into blood cancer, which took the lives of her father and grandmother.

She said: “Lance will always divide opinion and there is no right or wrong but I had to go with what I believe in and my gut feeling was that this isn’t right.”