Lance Armstrong is being roasted on Twitter for bragging about cycling past Vice President Mike Pence on a bike path, though the disgraced former champion insists it was a joke.
‘I can’t drop many people on a bike these days but I just blew the f****n’ doors off Mike Pence on a Nantucket bike path. Day. Made,’ Armstrong tweeted on Saturday to his 3.4 million followers.
The tweet went viral, generating more than 87,500 likes, 8,000 retweets, and more than 31,200 comments.
Most of the comments were highly critical of the 47-year-old Armstrong, who is 13 years younger than Pence, 60.
Disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong (left) tweeted about cycling past Vice President Mike Pence (right) while on a bike path in Nantucket on Saturday. Armstrong is seen left in Costa Rica in 2018. Pence is seen right in Miami in June
‘I can’t drop many people on a bike these days but I just blew the f****n’ doors off Mike Pence on a Nantucket bike path. Day. Made,’ Armstrong tweeted on Saturday to his 3.4 million followers
Armstrong was also reminded on social media of his past use of performance enhancing drugs that led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman for Pence, tweeted: ‘Couldn’t quite hang onto those Tour de France titles, but hey, at least you beat Karen & Mike Pence on a leisurely bike ride! Congrats?’
One Twitter user tweeted: ‘He’s 13 years older than you and was never a professional cyclist.’
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘A younger man who rode a bike professionally passed an older man on a bike. That made your day.’
The tweet ended with laughing hysterically emojis.
Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman for Pence, tweeted: ‘Couldn’t quite hang onto those Tour de France titles, but hey, at least you beat Karen & Mike Pence on a leisurely bike ride! Congrats?’
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Hope this victory makes up for all the ones you had stripped from you for cheating.’
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘A younger man who rode a bike professionally passed an older man on a bike. That made your day.’ The tweet ended with laughing hysterically emojis
Comedian Tim Young tweeted: ‘Sooo… the guy who cheated to win all his championships now thinks it’s winning to ride a bike faster than a 60 year old who wasn’t even trying to race him… got it’
![‘[Were you] using performance enhancing drugs then too? Or did you actually win with honor and not cheat? Just wondering,’ tweeted another Twitter user](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/08/12/00/17168236-7347201-image-a-48_1565567918215.jpg)
‘[Were you] using performance enhancing drugs then too? Or did you actually win with honor and not cheat? Just wondering,’ tweeted another Twitter user
Pastor Greg Locke tweeted: ‘Yay for you Mr. Bike Path warrior.’
One Twitter user tweeted: ‘He’s 13 years older than you and was never a professional cyclist’
‘[Were you] using performance enhancing drugs then too? Or did you actually win with honor and not cheat? Just wondering,’ tweeted another Twitter user.
Pastor Greg Locke tweeted: ‘Yay for you Mr. Bike Path warrior.
‘Mike Pence just blew past you on every road in character.’
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Hope this victory makes up for all the ones you had stripped from you for cheating.’
In response to the blowback, Armstrong claimed that his original tweet was a joke. He tweeted that ‘some people can’t take a joke or even having a little fun on twitter. Lightin’ the f*** up people. But seriously, I did blow his doors off!!’
Comedian Tim Young tweeted: ‘Sooo… the guy who cheated to win all his championships now thinks it’s winning to ride a bike faster than a 60 year old who wasn’t even trying to race him… got it.’
In response to the blowback, Armstrong claimed that his original tweet was a joke.
He tweeted that ‘some people can’t take a joke or even having a little fun on twitter.
‘Lightin’ the f*** up people. But seriously, I did blow his doors off!!’
Pence is reportedly an avid cyclist. After he lost a congressional race, Pence and his wife, Karen, rode 250 miles around his district in his home state of Indiana.
Pence flew to Nantucket with his wife, Karen, to attend a Republican Party fundraiser on Saturday. The Pences are seen above next to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in Nantucket on Saturday
Pence is reportedly an avid cyclist. After he lost a congressional race, Pence and his wife, Karen, rode 250 miles around his district in his home state of Indiana. Then-Indiana Governor Pence is seen above at a fundraising bike ride in Indianapolis in July 2016
The vice president and his wife are in Nantucket, where they were scheduled to attend a Republican fundraiser luncheon hosted by Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Before the doping scandal led to his fall from grace, Armstrong was considered an American icon.
He was widely viewed as an inspirational figure for conquering his sport after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
In an interview with NBC Sports in May, Armstrong said he ‘wouldn’t change a thing’ about the doping scandal.
‘We did what we had to do to win. It wasn’t legal, but I wouldn’t change a thing: whether it’s losing a bunch of money, going from hero to zero,’ said Armstrong.
Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life in 2012 after the International Cycling Union ratified the US Anti-Doping Agency’s sanctions.
Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life in 2012 after it emerged that he used performance enhancing drugs. Armstrong is seen above holding his Tour de France championship trophy in Paris in 2003
The American later admitted to cheating in a January 2013 televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Armstrong, once a hero to millions, suffered a spectacular fall from grace that cost him millions of dollars in lawsuits and endorsements.
‘I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change the way I acted. I mean I would, but this is a longer answer,’ he said.
‘Primarily, I wouldn’t change the lessons that I’ve learned. I don’t learn all the lessons if I don’t act that way. I don’t get investigated and sanctioned if I don’t act the way I acted.
‘If I just doped and didn’t say a thing, none of that would have happened. None of it. I was begging for, I was asking for them to come after me. It was an easy target.’