Originally Posted by twahl
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.
Yup, he's definitely seen as a very American athlete outside the US. Sheldon's reach is much more international in scope. And more cross-generational, come to think of it.
I recall skimming his autobiography where he stated that he chose cycling in a very calculating manner- it was a sport where he had good chances of doing well in. So my impression is that he was more focussed on winning, and that cycling was just a convenient field for him to compete on.