To be fair to Vingo, he looked very strong in winning Tirreno Adriatico. And he clearly fancied his chances at last year's Vuelta before Jumbo belatedly told him to stop attacking his teammates. But he just doesn't go for the classics - which is why he's less fun than, say, the Slovenian twosome, Pidcock, even S. Yates.
Pre-cancer, Armstrong was a pretty formidable one-day racer. It's only after he "got with the program" that the Tour became the sole focus. He'd still pop up in other races - I saw him at Circuit de la Sarthe back in 2001, for example.