Cycling: Armstrong cycles at a crossroad

Jim Litke

Days like this are what Lance Armstrong calls the ''obligation of the cured.''

They involve very little riding and too much talking, and his schedule is already overcooked. But this debt is personal. Almost eight years after his own bout with cancer, Armstrong remains convinced he survived to accomplish something besides stringing six straight Tour de France titles together.

''You used to have a sort of a bike show here in town a long time ago,'' he begins, telling a story from the stage set up in a downtown plaza. ''Just after I was diagnosed, I came to the bike show and decided I was going to go out for a bike ride one day.''