Well, Indurain manged it after 5 TdF, and Lemond was at least not arrogant after 3. Hinault and Anquetil had pretty big egos, but as they were Fren ch, the French public was more inclined to tolerate them, and in the case o f Anquetil, he really wasn't that popular, most of the public hoping for Po ulidor to beat him. Merckx has as big an ego as Lance, but was/is more t actful in handling the press. Plus, Merckx can more easily be forgiven h is pride because his record is at least 10 times as impressive as Lance's. Eddy won 5 Tours and 5 Giros, a Vuelta or two, and every classic worth mention, some of them 5 times. Lance's only major victories other than t he TdF were one World Championship and one San Sebastian. Combined wit h 7 TdF, that is certainly an enviable record, but I think Lance's overall record wouldn't rank him in the top 10 all time, and probably not even in t he top 20. The American public may believe that the Tour de France is th e only bike race in the world, but the European fans know better. Lance w as perfectly logical and ruthlessly efficient in exploiting America's fixat ion on the TdF to become rich and influential in America. I don't blame him for it, but if he expects to be loved in Europe for his approach, he ex pects too much.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
From: Nor Meyer <norbikes@gmail.com> Subject: [CR]Lance's In Your Face attitude To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 3:32 PM
Hard to be humble when you've won the Tour 7 times. Almost as hard as avoiding mentioning how many bikes you have every other post....
Nor Meyer in Mt. Vernon, IA