Lance Armstrong, branded a drug cheat and banned from cycling by the US Anti-Doping Agency, was back on a bike in Colorado on Saturday and loving every minute of it.

"Had a blast racing the #poweroffour this morning," Armstrong tweeted after finishing second in the Power of Four mountain bike race, a mostly local affair featuring tough climbs and descents on four peaks in the Aspen-Snowmass ski resort area.

"Got whooped up on by a kid young enough to be my son! Keegan Swirbul - remember that name!" added Armstrong, a father of five who finished second behind 16-year-old Swirbul in the race.

Armstrong, now retired from elite level cycling, was making his first public appearance since the USADA announced on Friday that he would be banned for life from cycling's top pro events and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

The record seven titles, which helped make him a sports icon in America, will be expunged from his career record because of "numerous anti-doping rule violations, including his involvement in trafficking and administering doping products to others", but Armstrong sounded like that was the furthest thing from his mind on Saturday.

"I'm more at ease now than I've been in 10 years," Armstrong said after the race in comments quoted by the Denver Post. "I have five great kids and a wonderful lady in my life. My foundation is unaffected by all the noise out there."

USADA said Armstrong will forfeit all titles, medals and prizes earned from Aug 1, 1998, which means that in addition to the Tour titles he earned from 1999-2005 he also stands to lose the Olympic bronze medal he won in Sydney in 2000.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) and Tour de France organizers have yet to comment officially, but USADA made it clear it believes they must honor its findings under the World Anti-Doping Code.

"Because Mr Armstrong could have had a hearing before neutral arbitrators to contest USADA's evidence and sanction and he voluntarily chose not to do so, USADA's sanction is final," the agency's statement said.

Known as a fierce fighter on the bike and off, he surprised many on Thursday night when he said he would not seek to clear himself of the official charges levied by USADA through independent arbitration.

Such a case would have allowed him to hear the evidence USADA says it has gathered and contest it in a public forum in a process that could have eventually gone to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

(China Daily 08/27/2012 page24)