garciadb said:...and from here then on, we will. Oh Lance! Let's accept it folks, we all admire Lance from 1999 through 2005. No cyclist would not, period. In "ANY WAY" he mastered those seven years,, it is a class act that i don't believe anybody in my lifetime can ever do again. Multitudes gave him due credit for that. Yet when he announced his comeback, i really thought it is for cancer awareness and that add to my admiration of him. I even thought he would be paying some dues to those comrades that HELPED him in his course to glory. I WAS SADLY MISTAKEN! I wish it's not too late for him to accept that life is always GIVE AND TAKE! I can't imagine how glorious it would be to see Lance being the super domestic for a teammate that deserves.
I think you will find most people on here were Lance admirers if not fans up until about 03/04 and that includes most who fall into the 'hater' category. This is when people started to question the Lance fairytale, incidents like the Ferrari connection, Simeoni affair, his attitude to doping etc slowly turned a lot of people away.
I think a lot of people then started to look back at earlier incidents like Bassons, Cortisone cream for which he originally got a pass but people now questioned. By the time he retired, many were glad to see the back of him. He went from Lance the hero to Lance the arrogant, manipulative, bullying, lawyer loving, rodot rider who was very soft on the hot issue of doping.
After he retired came the French allegations, a lot of his former team-mates and competitors testing positive, Puerto. His attitude in retirement was just as bad, who remembers the "French positive for being assholes joke" at the ESPYs. If you didnt question him at that stage, well sorry but your head was firmly in the sand. There was just too much to dislike for many cycling fans.
Those outside the loop only got the 7 time Tour hero, we got the full details. To the cycling world Lance is just one huge dollar sign, for many he is a necessary evil as he attracts the unquestioning fringe fans, more bike sales etc. He is not that popular within the cycling community.
I think a lot of people developed into 'haters' from 05-08, people who developed their own impression of Lance from looking at the evidence available and actually having the sense to question everything. There was dismay at his return as people now knew what they were getting and that is exactly what we got.
To the fanboys, for every Lance 'hater', I can gurantee there was a one-time Lance fan who is perhaps a little bit more cynical or has a better grasp of reality, whatever way you wanna look at it.