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Lance Armstrong won hearts and new ears in France and elsewhere for his other big passion outside of cycling — the fight against cancer.

“The fact of not being loved by a certain category of people, by a certain country, that must have gnawed at him,” the Tour’s director, Christian Prudhomme, said this week. “Now, he emerges human. ... He has without a doubt become closer to the people.

“I only saw one negative placard about Armstrong over the entire three weeks!”

The hissers who gathered around Armstrong’s bus in 2005, whistling and booing as he rode to the start line flanked by bodyguards in the mornings, all but vanished this year, largely replaced by starry-eyed fans happy to see him back.

There was a French teenager in the Spanish city of Barcelona on the verge of tears after she failed to snag an Armstrong autograph and a banner on a hot French road declaring “Lance, yes you can.”

On the eve of Sunday’s final stage, Armstrong himself said: “I am a more relaxed person.”

“I might still be the boss of the peloton, but it’s not this: ’Hey, it’s my way or the highway,”’ he said. “Everybody in that peloton can talk to me and, before, very few people could speak to me — I think was their impression.”

Cycling’s doping controls, even though they still have holes, are more believable now than they were when Armstrong was in his racing prime. Rightly, Armstrong’s been repeatedly tested.

He would like fans to believe the fact that nothing’s been found must show that he was clean in the past, too. Although that argument lacks logic, it is an interesting example of how Armstrong’s comeback is in part an effort to change others’ opinion of him.

Armstrong was honest enough to acknowledge that some cycling fans think he’s “got the egg on his face” because riders he beat in his heyday, such as 2005 runners-up Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, were subsequently brought down by doping scandals.

Winning over his doubters and countering the suspicions “was a goal of mine, to be frank,” he said.

“In my opinion, and this is mine and of course I’m bias(ed), but if you’re on the fence or you’re in the middle and you want to be objective, those questions have been answered,” he added.

To think Armstrong aimed for third, instead of the winner’s spot, this year to win sympathy is clearly wrong. He would have won if he could and will try to do so again next year.

But, this time, third was just perfect.