Way to go, Lance Amstrong!

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Posted By: julie

360 days of the year I spend cursing the USPS for various reasons; the other 5 I spend rooting for Lance Armstrong.

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Posted By: TBob

Lance Armstrong is a role model but unfortunately, all we hear about are the Allen Iversons, etc. of the world, instead of a courageous sport figure who has overcome the odds and achieved the unthinkable in sports, 5 straight championships.

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Posted By: .

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Wow!

Kicking cancer after being given no better than a 50/50 chance and then 5 straight Tour de France championships. This guy is unbelievable!

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Posted By: jay berhens

julie, I hope you realize that the race is run over 20 days, not 5.

Jay

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Posted By: julie

from cursing the USPS!

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Posted By: Jay Miller

Yah Julie!

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Posted By: Hankron

As with many news sites, MSNBC.com uses those instant polls which I love to hate. The current one is as follows.

'Who is greatest cyclist ever?'

a Lance Armstrong (Won in 1999-2003)
b Bernard Hinault (1978-79, 1981-82, 1985)
c Miguel Indurain (Won in 1991-95)
d Greg LeMond (Won in 1986, 1989-90)
e Eddy Merckx (Won in 1969-72, 1974)

My guess is that 5 percent of the people who took the poll ever read the name Eddy Merckx until they read read it as choice e, and 10 percent had never heard of Hinault until the read choice b.

I am confident that if Emmitt Smith was choice d, he would have received more votes than Merckx, Hinault and Indurain combined.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

While I agree that the instant polls are somewhat flawed (sort of like the fans voting for the MLB all-stars), some good does come out of them if they pique the reader's curiosity and the reader actually goes to look up and learn something about a choice they don't know.

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Posted By: Hankron

Kevin, your point is a good one, though voting for 'the greatest ever' seems to be a strange place to be learning. In the end, these polls are nothing more than forms of entertainment (and there's nothing wrong with having some fun), and it all comes down to how seriously one takes the results. If this poll is used on the NBC Nightly News tonight, then you'd better start worrying. I admit that I voted, though to see how much Lance Armstrong won by (You have to vote to see the results).

The worst time time to both take a 'greatest ever' poll or to invest in a player's collectables is after he won a championship or set some big record. I'm sure that after home run #62, Mark McGwire would have won an instant poll or two and probably newbies were snathing up his collectables on Shop at Home.

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Posted By: Hankron

I wish to point out that there is a world of difference between of a vote of "Your favorite all time" and "The greatest ever." With the former question, the poll would have been perfectly valid.

Or, for accurate results, the poll could have included a choice of f): 'I have no idea who is Eddy Merckyx. Are you sure you didn't just make that name up?"

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Posted By: jay behrens

You are a better person than me. I haven't taken a day off cursing UPS for over 17 years. The problems I had with UPS almost make eBay look like a compationate, customer oriented company.

Jay