BTW, people who actually know Armstrong as a friend or regular acquaintance describe him as a good guy. But local friends who've ridden with him on event rides mostly describe him as aloof.

That doesn't surprise me. For years he's been dogged and harassed by journalists and race observers, a pretty regular barrage of catcalls. And by all accounts he just appears to ignore them and doesn't respond. In at least one comment he acknowledges that he deserves the abuse and accepts it as a consequence of his actions. As long as it doesn't result in actual physical attacks he seems to accept it and shrug it off.

But that's also an oddly common quirk among some narcissistic overachievers. There's no bad publicity. It's better to be talked about than ignored.