His influence is almost surely limited to the U.S., and it would be hard to quantify exactly what influence he has in bringing people to cycling. However, his consecutive wins and being from the U.S. has surely gone a long ways toward feeding the American collective ego. Look at the Olympics. How many people that have never in their lives followed gymnastics know who Mary Lou is? Trek has certainly seen a huge increase in sales. Every redneck in the country likes to yell "hey Lance!" or something similar when they see a roadie. Lance's wins have brought us daily coverage of the Tour and his past relationship with a rock star have surely made at least a couple of people pull on Spandex.