GAP, France — Lance Armstrong’s reappearance on the fringes of the Tour de France last week was greeted at the race with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for bad odors. That is in stark contrast to Greg LeMond, another American Tour winner, who not only received a warm reception when he returned last year, but who is increasingly becoming an institution.

After a long absence from the Tour, LeMond has become the host of a daily show and the face of cycling on Eurosport, a satellite and cable channel that broadcasts the Tour live throughout the continent. It is a rare Eurosport vehicle that does not have an oversize portrait of LeMond on its exterior.

In a motor home so decorated and sitting just beyond Monday’s finish line, in Pau, LeMond seemed both surprised and pleased to find himself back at the race that he won three times, this time as a different kind of celebrity.

“It’s great; I think I’m more popular now than even as a Tour winner,” LeMond said while keeping an eye on a small television showing the race. “Obviously the show helps. But maybe it’s because there are a lot of people who really love cycling who, after a dark period in cycling, remember my victories as the last, maybe, the last clean period in the sport.”