QUOTE:
"I kinda wish that I had never watched "The Lance Chronicles." I used to be able to root for him with impunity, but now I can't. Why? Because he really comes across as an a**hole! I realize what all the Lance fans are going to say - "He wouldn't be the champion he is without his attitude!" I wonder, though, what was he like before he won his first Tour? Much more affable, I bet. He seems to have adopted these "everyone is out to get me" and "me against the world" complexes."

Not if you read his first book. He's had a chip on a shoulder from waay back - it's what's fueled his motivation almost from inception, IMO. He definitely had those same complexes b/c he was poor, his mom was single/divorced, he grew up on "the wrong side of the tracks", etc., before he ever won a TdF.

In fact, I'd say the ONLY thing that tempered his chip on his shoulder and has made him more "human" was his cancer - it mellowed him in a certain way, gave him more perspective on life. Before that, at least if his book was to be believed, he was REALLY arrogant.