Team RadioShack & Livestrong to auction 6 Tour of California team bikes for charity

Fancy a new top end Trek Madone 6.9SSL, one careful owner, and all you have to do is make a contribution to charity? Well your luck could be in because Trek and Livestrong have announced that they will be auctioning off six Team RadioShack bikes come the end of this week's Amgen Tour of California. The money raised will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation to help fund its anti-cancer activities.

The Madone 6.9SSL is a pretty special bike in its own right, but the bikes being ridden by RadioShack at the Tour of California are even more distinctive than usual thanks to a paint job by the artist Shepard Fairey (of Barack Obama 'Hope' poster fame) who also provided some painted specials for Armstrong's comeback ride in the 2009 Giro. The Tour of California feature slightly more restrained black and red paint jobs emblazoned with motifs "inspired by the speed, energy & mobility of Team RadioShack" according to the accompanying press release. Well Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer did pretty well on them in yesterday's stage coming first and second.

Each Madone will be signed by the artist and the rider that rode - so we're talking plenty collectable we should think. The auction starts on Livestrong's ebay page this Sunday (22 May) when the Tour of California ends and runs through until the Tuesday the 31st. If you want one your charitable contribution will need to be significant - bits start at $8,000 and as an indication of how these things can go Fairey’s 2009 Giro d’Italia Trek Madone was sold for $110,000 at “It’s About the Bike,” auction at Sotheby’s in New York that raised $1.3 million for Livestrong.