I agree with your sentiments. My statement on luck was not meant to take away from his talent or hard work, both of which I agree are one in a million. But there are times where even the sharpest instincts and skills cannot avoid a crash. Or just bad luck - getting laid out by a camera man after the finish line. Or getting sick with something in July.
Lance took control of everything he could during his run. but some things are out of your control no matter how much you try to. It doesn’t take away from his legacy to point it out because it is true of all great athletic accomplishments.
And maybe that's what I sensed before - that his focus is not so much on winning for individual glory now (surely he's had enough of that), but on pushing the group aspect & ramping up the mass popularity of this sport and make his final appearance his "Pay It Forward" tour.
He's involved in advocating for cycling in lots of ways through the new team, through his shop, and a proposed bikeway & commuter biking center in Austin, for example. If he can pull off some audience-pleasing fireworks to get somebody else on the podium, I strongly suspect that he'd feel that was good for his resume now that he's more involved on the business end in other words, even though most of his fans wouldn't get that it was a big deal & feel it was somehow a disappointing comedown to be riding for the sake of someone else's glory in the TdF.