Lance Armstrong Hospitalized After Crashing Bike

Even the best fall from time to time. Lance Armstrong was hospitalized Wednesday after crashing his bike on a cycling trail in Colorado, he wrote alongside an Instagram photo of his bloody face.

The Tour de France winner said that he was riding the Tom Blake dirt trail in Snowmass Village in Apsen, Colorado when he fell.

“Well, sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the nail! The Tom Blake trail (one of my faves) came up and tried to KO my ass today. Took quite the blow to the noggin’ so swung by the Aspen Valley Hospital (great facility!) to get my head checked,” Armstrong wrote, adding that “for the 46 yrs prior to today I completely would have blown off getting checked. Not now.”

He continued, “Small world story – a few weeks back I posted a pic of @ghincapie, @mikekloser, and myself. Credit photo to “some dude at top of buttermilk”. Well, that ‘dude’ turned out to be @ajaxrider – the ER doc on duty today! Charlie, thanks for looking after me.”

Many of Armstrong’s 200,000 followers took to the comments section to wish the cyclist a speedy recovery.

“Hope u heal fast! Take care of your self,” one person wrote.

“It’s all fun and games and then some tree has to spoil it,” someone else said.

“Lance, get well soon. you are the greatest!” another person said.

Another follower reminded Armstrong of a time he helped them after they crashed during a ride with him. “I crashed on a CHARITY RIDE w you and CVV in October. Thanks for yelling at the truck w the horse trailer for me. Heal up!” the person wrote.

Despite his success in the world’s most famous bike race, Armstrong is still banned for life from sanctioned cycling events by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

His redemption route has been a long one that may never come to fruition, but in an interview with Freakonomics Radio earlier this summer, he said he’s come a long way since his infamous 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

For example, he told a story of how he was waiting for an Uber in Denver when a group of people at a patio bar across the street noticed him. The Uber pulled up in front of the bar, forcing Armstrong to cross the street. As he passed the crowd, he acknowledged one person who called to him and then the entire crowd eventually chanted “F— you” at him.

While 10 years ago he said he would have started throwing punches, he instead paid for all their tabs and merely said, “I understand.”

“I’m getting in my Uber and there’s one guy goes, ‘Hey Lance,’ and I fully expected him to go, ‘What’s up, dude?’ and you know, ‘Right on man, love you,’ you know? And I go ‘Hey what’s up?’ He goes ‘F— you. F— you! F— you!’ and he wouldn’t stop. And the next thing you know, the entire patio is screaming ‘F— you, f— you, f—.’ I’ve never had that happen. I was like, ‘Oh.’ I was shaking,” Armstrong said.

He continued, “So I got in the car and it was a very short drive to the race. But I’m sitting there, and I’m not saying a word, but I’m saying to myself, ‘You’re Lance Armstrong. You have to do something. You can’t take that.’ So I called the bar. I said, ‘Put the manager on the phone.’ Manager gets on the phone. I explained to him everything that happened. And he said, ‘Oh man, I’m so sorry. Dude that’s really regrettable. Hope it doesn’t happen again.’ I said, ‘Okay, I need you to do me a favor. Here’s my credit card number. I want you to walk out there and you buy everything they’re eating and drinking. And tell them that I understand.’”

This story is developing…