Originally Posted by Mr_Christopher

I started that poll and while the results are interesting I think the only thing we can glean from is limited to BF members who hang out in the pro cycle forum who voted. I don;t think it represents the opinion of john q public.

I suspect the average lance fan did not pay much attention to any of the drama, maybe watched 10 minutes of the entire race. I think you could sum up the man on the street's opinion thusly:

lance is an american (we're number 1, you know?)
lance survived cancer
lance won 7 tours (they play that game in france, did you know that? france is not number 1, you know?)
lance came back and almost won an 8th!
lance's team mate cost lance what would have been his 8th win
lance is hated by the french, so he's cool

I was out on a ride the other night with some guys in their 20s-30s and one guy told me lance lost the TdF by a few 1/1000s of a single second. he was serious. I told him lance actually lost by several minutes and he said he thought CNN said 1/1000s of a second. that probably sums up the average american's opinion on LA. poll the avg american and I'd wager LA is a hero and they like him more than last year. assuming they know who he is.

BF poll, on the other hand, tells a different story but it's a different group of people and even then only a tiny sample.