Lance Armstrong

Update: Organizers of the ride with Lance Armstrong say the ride is only open to the families of the bicycle crash victims, the Kalamazoo Bicycling Club and the cycling community. It is not open to the public.

Instead, organizers are encouraging the general public to attend the 25th annual Kal-Tour on June 26. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Kalamazoo Strong Organization and will directly benefit the families of the nine cyclists killed or injured in the crash. Registration for the Kal-Tour, which offers rides ranging from a 13-mile family ride to a 100-mile ride, starts at $20.

KALAMAZOO, MI - Lance Armstrong is coming to Kalamazoo Tuesday for a private ride to finish what nine bike club members started before five of them were killed and four seriously injured last week.

That's according to a post on the "Michigan ghostbikes" Facebook page.

Armstrong last week expressed "incredible sadness" about the deaths and injuries that occurred after a truck struck the members of the Chain Gang cycling club during one of their regular rides Tuesday, June 7. Armstrong was the world's dominant racing cyclist for years until he was banned from the sport for doping,

Charles Pickett Jr., 50, of Battle Creek faces five counts of second degree murder and four counts of reckless driving causing serious impairment.

Armstrong will join the Chain Gang for a closed ride involving club members on Tuesday, June 14, a 28.5 mile course that is the same one the victims were riding when, as Armstrong put it in an Instagram post, "unimaginable tragedy" struck. The event is not a ride of silence public event like last week's tribute.

They will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services parking lot, 3299 Gull Road, and ride to Plainwell and back, according to the ghostbikes Facebook post that was a shared email from Steve Johnson, owner of Johnson Cycle Works on Gull Road.

The ride is designed to bring together the group members for healing from grief and fear the crash caused to so many.

"For me, this ride will be needed encouragement to begin working through some acute fears and pain, and to get back out there doing what I love," Johnson wrote.

Killed in the crash on North Westnedge Avenue north of Kalamazoo were Debra Ann Bradley, 53, of Augusta; Melissa Ann Fevig Hughes, 42, of Augusta; Fred Anton "Tony" Nelson, 73, of Kalamazoo; Lorenz John "Larry" Paulik, 74, of Kalamazoo and Suzanne Joan Sippel, 56, of Augusta.

The four seriously injured were Paul Douglas Gobble, 47, of Richland; Sheila Diane Jeske, 53, of Richland; Jennifer Lynn Johnson, 40, of Kalamazoo; and Paul Lewis Runnels, 65, of Richland.

The cyclists were struck from behind by a pickup truck while they all were traveling north on the two-lane road.

Armstrong won numerous bicycle races, including seven consecutive Tour de France races from 1999 to 2005, but in 2012 was stripped of his victories since 1998 due to allegations he used performance enhancing drugs.

Lynn Moore is a reporter for MLive. Email her at lmoore8@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.