Given how unpopular distance/endurance sports tend to be, why was Lance Armstrong so popular?

Don't bother looking for Episode 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3u0I3ORB4I

Delusional people wrote:

Arm is strong wrote:

All cyclists. From the 130 pound smallest climbers to 200 pound sprinters have superb washboard abs.

The abs are used much more when running, and hardly at all when cycling. I have seen many avid pot bellied cyclists.

Abs are most certainly used in cycling. Mostly, the fact that the riders have like 5% body fat will always show a flat or chiseled abs.

Guess you mean some hobby cyclists you saw? Um, I've seen many more runners with pot bellies.

Thank you all, I feel thoroughly educated and defeated on this one!

I wasn't trying to assert that cycling isn't cool to me or anything like that. I recently picked it up and I enjoy watching it on TV. As a former serious runner I probably was just wishing distance running could have the same commercial success, but alas.

Armstrong was white, unlike the vast majority of great American athletes, too bad he couldn't do it clean.

COVID-19 is tool of the left wrote:

He had alpha male personally Vs beta men like Rupp and the rest.

This is, no joke, spot on

indoorszn wrote:

COVID-19 is tool of the left wrote:

He had alpha male personally Vs beta men like Rupp and the rest.

This is, no joke, spot on

Too true. Even Kipchoge is a beta male. There are no alpha males in distance running.

tarckstar wrote:

da crook wrote:

LA was a doping cheater, not a competitor, and certainly not in the same vein as rapist kobe and MJ. Certainly LA would have had less than zero morals against using a motor, and he probably did cheat in that way also.

LA cheated every way possible, and that did not include motorized bikes during his time racing, in my opinion. That tech has boomed in recent years, but was nowhere near mature ten years ago.

I see him all the time at a coffee shop so I'll ask him if he ever used a motor. He is quite a sociopath, so I may not get an honest answer. Despite all his character flaws, he still has a lot of hangers-on, at least around here.

Most on this forum can name some of the top distance running stars, but how many can name ANY top-level race walker, male, female, American or not? Quick, no Googling.. And race walking is a sport that is the close cousin of running, they share the same DNA. In fact, most of us, if honest, will admit that we have at some point participated in race walking rather than running during the final miles of a marathon. So if we don't understand or appreciate fully a sport so close to ours, it's no surprise that the general public has only the vaguest understanding of what goes into competitive (repetitive) distance running.

Lance was just a great story all the way around (too great of course)

Single Mom

Red blooded kid/ flag waving

Brash and out spoken but backed it up

Intelligent enough to be well spoken--no grammar errors etc didn't sound dumb

Cancer beater

Dated rock stars and other hotties

Loaded w sponsors we all love Oakley Nike Trek--American companies

To not like was to be jealous of

An American winning the Tour was big news. Add in the cancer story and it made for a marketer's dream.

Setting the doping aside, and the sport was dirty before Lance arrived, it is probably the biggest comeback story for the past century and I don't just mean sports comeback, I mean come back from almost dead.

The tour has a great broadcast schedule. Its on all July basically and you can catch the day's stage multiple times throughout the day. Imagine if NY marathon was shown live, then rebroadcast both in the afternoon and at night. Even on an obscure station, everyone would know who the top Americans were. It would be a bit harder now due to the age of streaming, but Lance became popular before streaming was a thing.

ilonggo wrote:

Most on this forum can name some of the top distance running stars, but how many can name ANY top-level race walker, male, female, American or not? Quick, no Googling.. And race walking is a sport that is the close cousin of running, they share the same DNA. In fact, most of us, if honest, will admit that we have at some point participated in race walking rather than running during the final miles of a marathon. So if we don't understand or appreciate fully a sport so close to ours, it's no surprise that the general public has only the vaguest understanding of what goes into competitive (repetitive) distance running.

I can't even name any top triathletes and they actually do some running. If it had been on tv when I had cable for my first 22 years of life, like the tour, maybe I would have been interested in following it.

Were any of you around to watch his TDF wins? His violent surges during the climbs and his time trialing were awesome to watch. That downhill where Lance veered into a field to avoid a rider that crashed in front of him, rode across the field, carried his bike across a ditch and got on the wheel of the next group of riders was of the most exciting things I've ever seen in sports.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Were any of you around to watch his TDF wins? His violent surges during the climbs and his time trialing were awesome to watch. That downhill where Lance veered into a field to avoid a rider that crashed in front of him, rode across the field, carried his bike across a ditch and got on the wheel of the next group of riders was of the most exciting things I've ever seen in sports.

You mean when he took a shortcut? I guess that was one of his more minor cheats.

sticks in craw wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Were any of you around to watch his TDF wins? His violent surges during the climbs and his time trialing were awesome to watch. That downhill where Lance veered into a field to avoid a rider that crashed in front of him, rode across the field, carried his bike across a ditch and got on the wheel of the next group of riders was of the most exciting things I've ever seen in sports.

You mean when he took a shortcut? I guess that was one of his more minor cheats.

There are very few riders that have had the bike control skills to pull off what he did. Most riders would have plowed into the fallen rider and maybe have been injured out of the tour.

some people just have the type of personality that draws people in.

Lance, Bolt, Jordan

thoughts and prayers wrote:

some people just have the type of personality that draws people in.

Lance, Bolt, Jordan

Greg LeMond was a big deal win he was winning TDFs and his personality was similar to Rupp's.

Eddy Merckx is the best cyclist of all time and if you think Armstrong had a personality....ohhh boy!

You have "big" personalities now like Ronaldo & Fury. Merckx would make them look like "Mr. Proper" - Roger Federer.

not banned wrote:

Because Americans like to watch Americans winnin’!

This is the answer, but it applies to any country.

If Kip Choge was American, distance running would be popular.