Lance Armstrong rides out of Texas to live in artful Aspen mansion

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong — at one time one of the most revered celebrities in Austin — has pulled up stakes and relocated with his family from the hills of Central Texas to the mountains of Colorado.

A new article in Architectural Digest reveals that the Plano native; his wife, Anna Hansen; and their children moved full time to Aspen sometime last year.

“With five kids, it’s just great to live on a street that has no cars on it, ever,” Armstrong tells Architectural Digest of his life in Aspen. “We can ride our bikes into town.”

Armstrong sold his Austin-area Old Enfield mansion in June 2018 for nearly $6.9 million. Shortly after that, he forked over at least $1.28 million for a decidedly less spacious bungalow in the Clarksville neighborhood. It’s unclear whether Armstrong — who recently divulged that he hit the jackpot with an early investment in Uber — still owns the bungalow.

The Architectural Digest story takes readers on a glowing tour of Armstrong’s Aspen home, which is roughly double the size of the Clarksville pad, and includes an enviable modern art collection.

According to the magazine, Armstrong bought the nearly 6,000-square-foot home as it was being built. Armstrong paid nearly $9.2 million for the five-bedroom, six-bathroom property in 2008, The Aspen Times reported.

“I mean, to be frank, it’s not a home I ever would have designed,” Armstrong tells Architectural Digest. “What appealed to us more was the interior of it — the flow of it — and it’s ultimately, actually, become a great family home.”

Highlights of the Aspen abode — in the skiing mecca’s exclusive West End — include a media room, a wine room, and a formal living room with nearly floor-to-ceiling windows.

Probably the most prominent aspect, though, is the pricey artwork scattered around the house. Architectural Digest reports that Armstrong’s art collection features pieces from American contemporary artists Ed Ruscha, Shepard Fairey, and Tom Sachs; Japanese contemporary artist Yoshitomo Nara; and anonymous English street artist Banksy.

Armstrong has a somewhat rocky history in Aspen.

Back in August 2018, the cyclist — stripped in 2012 of his seven Tour de France titles after admitting the use of performance-enhancing drugs — crashed while biking on a trail in the Aspen area. Later that month, Aspen cops responded to reports of a robber at his home.

Two years earlier, in 2016, Armstrong put up the Aspen home as collateral in injunction with a $10 million legal settlement he reached in 2015 with Dallas-based SCA Promotions Inc., a provider of insurance for promotions, contests, and games. The company took Armstrong to court to recover Tour de France bonuses it had paid him and to recoup financial damages.

And in 2015, Armstrong pleaded guilty to careless driving after crashing his SUV into two parked cars in Aspen. The wreck occurred in 2014. He was ordered to pay a $150 fine and nearly $240 in court costs.

Despite those incidents, Armstrong has chosen to permanently hang his cycling shoes in Aspen.

But while Armstrong may have abandoned Austin as his full-time residence, he still visits the Capital City. “I’m running the Austin marathon in February, which is kind of crazy,” he tells Architectural Digest.

And he'll be in North Texas in March to ride alongside former teammate George Hincapie in the inaugural Gran Fondo Hincapie-Fort Worth.