Armstrong has his admirers, detractors

Some Frenchmen resent his success and domination of the Tour de France.
PARIS (AP) -- As Lance Armstrong races toward unheard-of Tour de France glory, France is torn. Many resent a brash Texan muscling in on their beloved cycling classic. But how can you hate such a champ?
"Face it, the man is amazing," Sebastian Bizeul, a medical technician, put it. He reflected a broad national sentiment. Of course he'd prefer to see a Frenchman on top, he said. But it's a fair fight.
"This stuff about drugs, his aloof manner, his guards, it is all minor if you care about the sport," Bizeul said. "He has worked hard, and he is grand champion. You've got to give it to him."
Henri Leconte, a retired French tennis standout, wrote a glowing tribute in the daily, "Le Monde," calling Armstrong's image of being distant and prickly a fabrication of the media.
"He is, above all, absolutely normal," he wrote. "He is very kind, generous and respectful of others. ... He has his heart in his hand, and his fight against cancer proves it."
And, Leconte added, "He had the decency to learn French. He loves France."
The sentiment is hardly unanimous.
Overcame Simeoni
On Friday, when Italian Filippo Simeoni streaked ahead to try for victory on a stage that would not affect overall standings, Armstrong overcame him and forced him back to the main pack.
It may have been personal. Simeoni had said that he had been prescribed performance-enhancing drugs by one of Armstrong's medical advisers. Armstrong called him a liar. Simeoni sued for defamation.
The popular daily, Liberation, accused Armstrong of "imbecilic cruelty," saying that "his conceit has become a spirit of absolute domination."
Some riders said Simeoni was in the wrong. Armstrong told reporters later, "All he wants to do is destroy cycling and the sport that pays him."
On one stretch of country road, a French farmer watched the pack flash by. A huge American flag was stuck in the front bumper of his battered old Peugeot.
In Carcassone, the mayor offered Armstrong a night of luxury in the old walled city, and the crowd bellowed its approval. A lone voice, audible only to those nearby, yelled: "Doper."
"Personally, I don't like him," declared Yvon Perrot, a French railways official. He shifted to thoughts on what he called American imperialism and the troubled state of a world dominated by a single superpower. "Oh, look, he is a grand champion," Perrot concluded. "He has a really good team. He spends months training in France. You have to admire him."