Howard Kveck wrote:

Noted that Nike provided three elite-level marathoneers to pace him. Did they
peel off as they approached the line or did they get to sprint away at the end?

The pacing situation was weird. Joan Benoit Samuelson was fetching
drinks from aid stations and handing them to LANCE. Hicham El Guerrouj,
recently retired mile record holder, seemed to jump in with about 8
miles to go, and was fetching GU packs from aid stations, tearing them
open, and handing them to LANCE. There was a Hispanic guy with a
T-shirt reading "GERMAN", who I thought might have been former NYCM
winner German Silva, and ran with LANCE almost the whole way. The only
one of these I noticed crossing the finish line was El Guerrouj. I
never noticed Alberto Salazar, who was mentioned in some media stories.

I found the sight of El G and Joanie fetching refreshments very
strange. Either (a) Nike doled out huge payola to them; (b) LANCE is a
much nicer guy than it appears from media reports, and these other
athletes really like him; (c) LANCE is so highly respected for his
achievements that athletics superstars want to fetch him drinks and GU.
I have no idea which applies...