Lance Armstrong Returning to Cycling Six Months After Doping Confession

Lance Armstronghas announced his return to cycling.

The disgraced professional cyclist, who admitted to using banned substances in a highly publicized interview with Oprah Winfrey in January, says he plans to take part in The Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa this month.

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“I’m well aware my presence is not an easy topic, and so I encourage people if they want to give a high five, great,” he told the Register. “If you want to shoot me the bird, that’s OK, too.”

Armstrong has been banned from professional cycling for life. He also has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in addition to the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

“To be honest, it’s not a statement, it’s not an experiment,” Armstrong said of his decision to take part in the Iowa event. “It’s just me wanting to go ride my bike with what in the past has been a friendly group of people that share the same interests.”

This will mark his fifth time in the six-day Great Bicycle Ride -- kicking off July 21, which, incidentally, also happens to be the final day of the 2013 Tour de France -- and his first major public appearance since his confession to Winfrey.

Said the Iowa event's director, T.J. Juskiewicz, “We are open to anyone that wants to come ride RAGBRAI.”

VIDEO: Lance Armstrong Admits to Oprah: Yes, I Used Banned Substances

Since his confession, Armstrong has been slapped with up to $135 million in liabilities from a series of lawsuits.

“I’m committing to working through them, and whether it’s settling cases or whether it’s fighting some cases — because some have merit some don’t, ” he told the Des Moines newspaper. "But I’m committed to the process and that’s probably as much as I would and could say about it. That’s a tricky area there. Unless you have $135 million you want to let me borrow, or have?”

In his sitdown with Winfrey, Armstrong admitted that he had used banned substances -- EPO, testosterone and human growth hormone -- as well as blood doping or blood transfusion to enhance his performance.

Asked by Winfrey why he finally decided to tell the truth after years of denials, Armstrong replied: "I don’t know that I have a great answer. I will start my answer by saying this is too late. It’s too late for probably most people. And that’s my fault. I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times. It wasn’t as if I said no and I moved off it."

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He also told Winfrey he felt his punishment was too harsh.

"I deserve to be punished. I'm not sure I deserve a death penalty," he said, adding that he feels that some of his fellow teammates got off easier than he did. "If I could go back to that time, trading my story for a six-month suspension -- what other people got. I got a death penalty, and they got six months. I'm not saying that's unfair necessarily; I'm saying it's different."

Cannes Gun Scare: Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison

The scene of panic at 'Le Grand Journal' in Cannes, moments after a man shot blank shots into the crowd.

PARIS – The man who caused a panic when he fired blanks into the crowd gathered to see actors Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil at a live beachside taping of French chat show Le Grand Journal during the Cannes Film Festival in May has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison.

Now identified as 43-year-old Stephane Cros from nearby Nice, the man was armed with a replica Smith and Wesson gun and a fake grenade. He said during the hearing that he had hoped to take hostages.

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Television channel Canal Plus and production company KM had each asked for €30,000 in damages but were denied compensation.

Newspaper Le Figaro reported that during the trial, Cros handed over handwritten papers that were read by a magistrate. In them he declared that he had hoped to get onto the set and take hostages, quoted philosophers Benedict de Spinoza, Martin Heidegger and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, railed against international agribusiness giant Monsanto and the mismanagement of local government. The defense argued that he is depressed and lonely, having been cut off from his children for unstated reasons.

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Prosecutor Gwenaelle Ledoigt argued that this was akin to an act of terror, stating that although the act was carried out with a replica gun and dummy grenade, causing panic and inciting fear was the crime. “Using terror and violence to impose his political views, this is the very definition of terrorism,” she said. “I'm not saying this is an act of terrorism, but intellectually the process is the same, only the degree of violence is different."

No one was injured during the incident, however initial reports that Cros had fired shots into the crowd made it the most shocking of a particularly eventful Cannes. Aside from the panic at Le Grand Journal, this festival saw two high-profile jewelry heists, multiple robberies and a Psy imposter taking advantage of local restaurants and club owners, as well as fooling festival-goers.