greg lemond

Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961) is an American former professional road racing cyclist, entrepreneur, and anti-doping advocate. A two-time winner of the Road Race World Championship (1983 and 1989) and a three-time winner of the Tour de France (1986, 1989, and 1990). LeMond is the only American male to win the Tour de France and is considered by many to be the greatest American cyclist of all time, one of the great all-round cyclists of the modern era, and an icon of the sport's globalisation.

LeMond began his professional cycling career in 1981. In 1983, he became the first American male cyclist to win the Road World Championship. LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986; he is the first non-European professional cyclist to win the men's Tour. He was accidentally shot with pellets and seriously injured while hunting in 1987. Following the shooting, he underwent two surgeries and missed the next two Tours. At the 1989 Tour, he completed an improbable comeback to win in dramatic fashion on the race's final stage. He successfully defended his Tour title the following year, becoming one of only eight riders to win three or more Tours. LeMond retired from competition in December 1994 and was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996. He was the first professional cyclist to sign a million-dollar contract and the first cyclist to appear on the cover of ''Sports Illustrated''.

During his career, LeMond championed several technological advancements in pro cycling, including the introduction of aerodynamic "triathlon" handlebars and carbon fiber bicycle frames, which he later marketed through his company LeMond Bicycles. His other business interests have included restaurants, real estate, and consumer fitness equipment. LeMond is a vocal opponent of performance-enhancing drug use in cycling and is a founding board member of 1in6.org, a nonprofit charity that assists male victims of child sex abuse.

Early life and amateur career

LeMond was born in Lakewood, California, and was raised in the Washoe Valley, a ranch country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range between Reno, and the family home about 2.5 miles north of Carson City, Nevada. His parents are Bob LeMond and Bertha LeMond (d. 2006), and he has two sisters, Kathy and Karen.

LeMond grew up living an active, outdoor life. Hiking, hunting, skiing and flyfishing were boyhood pastimes. The ranch country of the Sierra Nevada mountain range lent itself to such pursuits. A hyperactive youngster, LeMond believes these outdoor activities helped keep him out of trouble. "I was a boy who just could not sit still. I had trouble focusing in school. Parents and educators then did not have the skill set to diagnose and cope with what we know now was a classic case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD certainly was not the frequently medicated childhood disease it is today. My triumph over the symptoms was found atop two thin tires over many dusty miles." Said LeMond: "That's one of the traits. It's the inability to sit down nd listento something you are not really interested in and absorb it. If they are interested in it, people with ADD excel in really good ways. When I got into cycling I would say the sport itself took a fog off my brain. I was able to absorb stuff I read. It changed my life."

LeMond attended Earl Wooster High School in Reno, but lived too far away to participate in team sports. LeMond soon biked almost daily to high school. He often rode home from Wooster, taking a route over Mt. Rose, along to Incline Village, then south on Hwy 28, then downhill to Carson City, then to his home.

LeMond's introduction to cycling came in 1975, thanks to freestyle skiing pioneer Wayne Wong, who recommended the bike as an ideal off-season training aid. LeMond started competing in 1976, and after dominating the Intermediate category (13–15) and winning the first 11 races he entered, he received permission to ride against older, more seasoned competitors in the Junior (16–19) category.

In 1977, while still only 15, LeMond finished second in the Tour of Fresno to John Howard, then the United States's top road cyclist and the 1971 Pan American Games champion. LeMond caught the attention of Eddie Borysewicz, the US Cycling Federation's national team coach, who described LeMond as "a diamond, a clear diamond." LeMond represented the United States at the 1978 Junior World Championships in Washington, D.C., where he finished ninth in the road race, and again in the 1979 Junior World Championships in Argentina, where he won gold, silver and bronze medals—the highlight being his victory in the road race. At age 18, LeMond was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic cycling team, the youngest ever to make the team. However, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from competing there.

Borysewicz, whom LeMond described as his "first real coach," wanted to retain his protégé through the next Olympic cycle and discouraged him from turning pro, but LeMond was determined. Nevertheless, while he was the reigning Junior World Road Champion in 1980, LeMond received no professional offers, and so in the spring of 1980, he joined the U.S. National cycling team for a 6-week European racing campaign. There, he finished third overall in the Circuit des Ardennes before winning the 1980 Circuit de la Sarthe stage race in France, thereby becoming the first American and youngest rider of any nationality "in the history of the sport to win a major pro-am cycling event n Europe" That victory, and the subsequent press coverage, raised LeMond's profile in Europe and he was scouted at his next event (the Ruban Granitier Breton stage race) by Cyrille Guimard, the Renault–Elf–Gitane team's directeur sportif. Guimard said he was impressed with LeMond's spirit, and told him, "You have the fire to be a great champion", before offering him a professional contract for 1981 with Renault. After he returned to the United States, LeMond won the 1980 Nevada City Classic, considered to be one of the most historic and challenging professional cycling races in United States. Despite eventually receiving several other offers to turn professional besides Guimard's, LeMond did not consider them seriously, and he signed with Renault in Paris on the day the 1980 Tour de France finished.

Professional career

LeMond was an "exceptionally gifted" amateur rider who quickly established himself as one of the most talented cyclists on the professional circuit. Respected cycling journalist John Wilcockson, who reported the Tour de France for more than 40 years, described LeMond as a rider who was ''fuoriclasse''.

1981–1983: Early years

LeMond's first professional victory came three months into his 1981 debut when he won a stage of the French Tour de l'Oise. He followed with a win in the Coors Classic in the United States, finishing ahead of Sergei Sukhoruchenkov, the 1980 Olympic road champion. The major step forward in 1981 occurred in the Dauphiné Libéré stage race where LeMond placed third. The achievement is the more remarkable because he rode the race in support of team leader Bernard Hinault. LeMond missed standing on the podium with race winner Hinault, as Pascal Simon had finished ahead of him. Two weeks later Simon was assessed a 10-minute penalty when it was discovered he had been doping. LeMond considered the race to have been a "major steppingstone" in his career. Said LeMond: "It showed me that I had the kind of climbing ability that you need to win the top European stage races." LeMond won a total of five races in his rookie season of 1981.

LeMond broke his collarbone on April 11, 1982, while racing the cycling classic Liège–Bastogne–Liège.Blumenthal p. 34 The injury forced LeMond to ride a reduced schedule before entering the World Championships, which were in Goodwood, England that year. In the men's road race competition, LeMond broke for the line but was out-sprinted by Italian Giuseppe Saronni. Following the race, LeMond's American teammate Jacques Boyer accused LeMond of chasing him down in the final 800 meters. Saronni was very strong at the end of the race and flew past Boyer and LeMond, winning by 5 seconds over LeMond, with another 5 seconds back to Kelly. Boyer placed tenth. Bronze medalist Sean Kelly, a favorite to win the race, was with Saronni when he caught LeMond with about 200 meters to go, but he could not hold his wheel. Said Kelly: "I don't think that Boyer was fading ... He got quite a good gap. Nobody wanted to go after him ... Yes, LeMond chased down Boyer. Boyer was the only man up the road."

LeMond was supported by his teammate George Mount, who observed, "What's LeMond going to do? Throw his bike down in front of everybody because Boyer is such a good buddy of everyone? ... Hell no—he's going to start sprinting because it's less than 200 meters to go and the sprint's already been going for a couple hundred meters. LeMond made a good move and a good sprint ... Boyer was not going to win that race. The best he could have got was fifth or sixth place."

LeMond did not apologize. The U.S. team was not as set up as the European teams, and did not have an independent race to determine the national champion. Instead, the highest finisher at the World's was considered the national champion. LeMond had argued for the team to compete as the European teams did, but team management and Boyer voted against him. Thus, unlike the other teams at the world championship, the US riders were competing against each other. Aged 21, LeMond was the first American pro to win a medal at the World's since Frank Kramer took silver in 1912. Said LeMond: "I'm racing for Renault and I'm racing for myself. It's a business and it's my living. To me, that second place was almost as good as winning, especially at my age."

Two weeks later, on September 20, 1982, LeMond won the mountainous 12-day, Tour de l'Avenir by a record 10 minutes, 18 seconds. The victory, and the time advantage LeMond held at the end, stunned Europe and provided broad confirmation that LeMond was indeed ''fuoriclasse''.

The following year, 1983, LeMond won the Road World Championship in Altenrhein, Switzerland outright, becoming the first American male cyclist to do so. ( Audrey McElmury won in 1969 and Beth Heiden won in 1980.) LeMond's cycling talent—his overall strength, climbing ability, ability to ride a fast time trial and his capacity to recover quickly—all suggested LeMond would be an excellent prospect for the most demanding Grand Tours.

1984–1986: Grand Tours

LeMond rode his first Tour de France in 1984, finishing third in support of team leader Laurent Fignon, and winning the white jersey of the young rider classification. The following year he was brought across to La Vie Claire to ride in support of team captain Bernard Hinault who had regained his form and was attempting to win his fifth Tour. French businessman and team owner Bernard Tapie signed LeMond with a $1 million contract over three years. In the race Hinault led through the early mountain stages, but suffered a crash and came into difficulty. At this point, it was clear that LeMond was an elite rider capable of winning the Tour in his own right. LeMond possessed a natural talent for riding the Grand Tours, and got stronger over the course of a three-week race. The injured Hinault was vulnerable, and his competitors knew it. Stage 17 included three major climbs in the Pyrenees. On the second, the Col du Tourmalet, LeMond followed Stephen Roche in an attack, but was not given permission to help build on the gap over the field. The managers of his La Vie Claire team ordered the 24-year-old LeMond not to ride with Roche, but to sit on his wheel, a tactic to use the rider in front as cover for wind resistance so the following rider uses less energy. The pace Roche could put out by himself eventually slowed, and other riders came up to join the two men. Hinault recovered as well, though he did not regain the lead group. At the end of the stage LeMond was frustrated to the point of tears. He later revealed that team management and his own coach Paul Köchli had misled him as to how far back Hinault had dropped during the crucial Stage 17 mountain stage. Hinault won the 1985 Tour, with LeMond finishing second, 1:42 behind. LeMond had ridden as the dutiful lieutenant, and his support enabled Hinault to win his fifth Tour. In repayment for his sacrifice Hinault promised to help LeMond win the Tour the following year.

Hoping to end the season on a high note LeMond entered the World Championships road race with the strongest team the United States ever fielded. Riders included Boyer and LeMond, as well as Andrew Hampsten, Ron Kiefel, Bob Roll and Eric Heiden and this time the American team was set up to help the three strongest riders in LeMond, then Hampsten and Kiefel. Throughout the race LeMond answered repeated attacks and led many chase groups to contain dangerous breakaways, but by the final lap of the race he was beginning to tire. He was however, part of the group that was going to win, and while Hampsten and Keifel survived the race to this point, unfortunately they were too far back to assist LeMond in the final ten kilometers. Inside the final kilometer the last rider to launch an attack was former Tour and Vuelta champion Joop Zoetemelk. Being as he was 38 years old and long past his prime none of the remaining contenders including LeMond, Claudio Corti, Robert Millar, Moreno Argentin or Stephen Roche took the attack seriously initially. Zoetemelk opened a sizeable gap however, before long it was in excess of a hundred meters and quickly growing. He also had two teammates remaining in Johan Van der Velde and Gerard Veldscholten, assisting him by riding at the front but not actually chasing, therefore slowing the chase group. Italian rider Moreno took up the chase but he had nothing left to close the gap and actually put his hand in the air waving for the other riders to come forward and take up the pursuit. LeMond too had nothing left to chase down this final attack feeling that if he did, he wouldn't have anything left for the sprint and wouldn't win any medal at all. In a notable upset, Zoetemelk beat the favorites to the line by three seconds as LeMond out-sprinted Argentin to take the silver. There was no controversy following this silver medal for LeMond and immediately after the race he rode up alongside the Dutchman and congratulated him saying, "Nice ride Joop."

For the 1986 Tour, LeMond was a co-leader of the La Vie Claire team alongside Hinault. Hinault's support seemed less certain the closer the race approached. An unspoken condition was that his help would be contingent upon LeMond demonstrating that he was clearly the better rider. Hinault was in superb form, and had the chance to win an unprecedented sixth Tour. Hinault chose to let the Stage 9 individual time trial be the decider for which rider would receive the full support of team La Vie Claire. Hinault won the Stage 9 time trial, finishing 44 seconds in front of LeMond. LeMond had bad luck during the stage, having suffered a punctured tire requiring a wheel change, and later in the stage a bicycle change was required when he broke a wheel. He was frustrated with the outcome and the impact it would have on how the team would function for the remainder of the race. In Stage 12, the first mountain stage of the race in the Pyrenees, Hinault attacked the lead group and built up an overall lead. By the end of Stage 12, Hinault had a five-minute lead over LeMond and the other top riders. He claimed he was trying to draw out LeMond's rivals, but none of these attacks were planned with LeMond. He was clearly willing to ride aggressively and take advantage of the opportunities presented. LeMond was never placed in difficulty, except by his own teammate. The following day Hinault broke away again early but was caught and then dropped by LeMond on the final climb of Stage 13, allowing LeMond to gain back four and a half minutes. The next three stages brought the Tour to the Alps. On Stage 17 LeMond and Urs Zimmermann dropped Hinault from the leading group, and the end of the day saw LeMond pulling on the yellow jersey of race leader, the first time it had ever been worn by a rider from the United States. The following day in the Alps saw Hinault attack again early on the first climb, but he was pulled back. Attempting an escape on the descent, he was unable to separate himself from LeMond. The La Vie Claire team leaders were both excellent descenders. As they ascended up the next col they continued to pull away from the field, and maintained the gap as they reached the base of the final climb, the vaunted Alpe d'Huez. They pressed on through the crowd, ascending the twenty-one switchbacks of Alpe d'Huez and reaching the summit together. LeMond put an arm around Hinault and gave him a smile and the stage win in a show of unity, but the infighting was not over. Hinault attacked again on Stage 19 and had to be brought back by teammates Andrew Hampsten and Steve Bauer. Commenting on the team situation prior to the final individual time trial at Stage 20, LeMond offered the following with a wry smile: "He's attacked me from the beginning of the Tour De France. He's never helped me once, and I don't feel confident at all with him."

LeMond had to keep his eye on his teammate and rival throughout the race. Hinault rode aggressively and repeatedly attacked, and the division created in the La Vie Claire team was unmistakable. LeMond would keep the yellow jersey to the end of the race and win his first Tour, but he felt betrayed by Hinault and the La Vie Claire team leadership. LeMond later stated the 1986 Tour was the most difficult and stressful race of his career.

1987–1988: Shooting accident and recovery

LeMond had planned to defend his title in the 1987 Tour de France with La Vie Claire, but he was unable to participate. Earlier that year, while riding in the Tirreno–Adriatico spring tune-up race, LeMond fell and fractured his left wrist. He returned to the United States to recover from the injury. The week before returning to Europe, he went turkey hunting on a ranch co-owned by his father in Lincoln, California. LeMond was with Rodney Barber and Patrick Blades, his uncle and brother-in-law. The trio had become separated when Blades, who heard movement behind him, turned and fired through a bush. The movement had come from LeMond, who was hit in his back and right side with approximately 60 pellets. LeMond's injuries were life-threatening, but a police helicopter was already airborne near the scene and transported LeMond on a 15-minute air medical flight to the Medical Center at University of California-Davis. LeMond was taken for emergency surgery. He had suffered a pneumothorax to his right lung and extensive bleeding, having lost some 65 percent of his blood volume. A physician informed LeMond later that he had been within 20 minutes of bleeding to death. The operation saved his life, but four months later he developed a small bowel obstruction due to adhesions that had formed following the shooting. He underwent another surgery to relieve the obstruction and take down the adhesions. Concerned that his team would drop him if they knew the shooting accident required a second surgery, LeMond asked the surgeons to remove his appendix at the same time. He then informed his team that he had had his appendix removed, but the rest of the story was left somewhat vague. The events effectively ended his 1987 season, and in October he announced he would return to serious competition the following February, with the Dutch PDM team.

With 35 shotgun pellets still in his body, including three in the lining of his heart and five more embedded in his liver, LeMond attempted to return to racing in 1988. His comeback was hampered by over-training which resulted in tendonitis in his right shin requiring surgery. He missed the Tour for the second year running. Tensions in the relationship between LeMond and PDM were aggravated when LeMond discovered that doping was going on at the PDM squad. The result was that LeMond moved from PDM, one of the strongest teams in the peloton, to ADR, a team based in Belgium. The team was co-sponsored by Coors Light for American races. The deal was completed on New Year's Eve, just hours before LeMond would have been legally obliged to ride another season for the Dutch team. Joining the Belgian ADR squad allowed LeMond to continue to compete, but with teammates like Johan Museeuw who were better suited to riding Classics than Grand Tours.

1989: Return to elite level

After struggling in the 1989 Paris–Nice early-season race and failing to improve his condition, LeMond informed his wife Kathy that he intended to retire from professional cycling after the 1989 Tour de France. He had some flashes of form with 6th overall in Tirreno–Adriatico and in the two-day Critérium International, sharing an escape with Fignon, Indurain, Mottet, Roche and Madiot and finishing 4th overall. He started the 1989 Giro d'Italia in May as preparation for the Tour to follow, but struggled in the mountains and was not in contention for any of the leaders' jerseys before the final individual time trial into Florence. LeMond placed a surprising second there, more than a minute ahead of overall winner Laurent Fignon. Some of his improvement he attributed to an anti-anemia treatment he received twice during the race.

Coming into the 1989 Tour de France LeMond was not considered a contender for the general classification (GC). His own most optimistic hope was to finish his final Tour in the top 20. Without the weight of expectation and other pressures of being a Tour favorite, LeMond surprised observers with a strong ride in the prologue in Luxembourg, finishing fourth out of 198 riders. Buoyed by the result, LeMond continued to ride well over the opening flat stages, winning the stage 5 individual time trial, and gaining the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for the first time in three years. LeMond seemed to ride himself into better condition during the first week's flat stages, and he was coming into peak form by the time the Tour reached the mountains. LeMond remained at the front of the race in the Pyrénées, but lost the lead to his former teammate and rival Laurent Fignon on stage 10 in Superbagnères. Five days later LeMond reclaimed yellow in the Alps, after the stage 15 mountain time trial from Gap to Orcières-Merlette. The see-saw battle continued, and when Fignon attacked on the upper slopes of Alpe d'Huez LeMond was unable to go with him, placing the yellow jersey back on the shoulders of Fignon. Fignon held a 50-second advantage over LeMond going into the 21st and final stage, a rare individual time trial from Versailles to the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Fignon had won the Tour twice before, in 1983 and 1984, and was a very capable time trialist. It seemed improbable that LeMond could take 50 seconds off Fignon over the short course. This would require LeMond to gain two seconds per kilometer against one of the fastest chrono-specialists in the world. LeMond had done wind tunnel testing in the off season and perfected his riding position. He rode the time trial with a rear disc wheel, a cut-down Giro aero helmet and the same Scott clip-on aero bars which had helped him to the Stage 5 time trial win. Holding his time trialing position LeMond was able to generate less aerodynamic drag than Fignon, who used a pair of disc wheels but chose to go helmetless and did not use the aero bars that are now commonplace in time trials. Instructing his support car not to give him his split times, LeMond rode flat-out and finished at a record pace to beat Fignon by 8 seconds and claim his second Tour de France victory. As LeMond embraced his wife and rejoiced on the Champs-Élysées, Fignon collapsed onto the tarmac, then sat in shock and wept.

The final margin of victory of eight seconds is the closest in the Tour's history. LeMond's average speed for the stage 21 time trial was, at that time, the fastest in Tour history. Since then, only the 1994 and 2015 prologues and David Zabriskie's 2005 time trial performance have been faster. The press immediately labeled LeMond's come-from-behind triumph as, "the most astonishing victory in Tour de France history," and while LeMond admitted that it felt almost "too good to be true", he personally rated it as "much more satisfying" than his first overall Tour win in 1986.

LeMond's return to the pinnacle of cycling was confirmed on August 27, when he won the World Championships road race in Chambéry, France. Late in the race with less than 10 km to go the lead group, who had been away since very early in the race, made up of three very strong riders in Steven Rooks, Thierry Claveyrolat and Soviet star Dimitri Konyshev were trying to hold on to fight for the victory amongst themselves when Laurent Fignon broke away from the pursuing group in an effort to chase the leaders down and solo to victory. On the final climb of the race LeMond attacked in pursuit of Fignon on his own. Before long he had caught the Frenchman and not long after that the pair could see the lead group in front of them and they were quickly closing the gap. LeMond briefly dropped Fignon and caught the lead group on his own. Immediately upon catching Rooks, Claveyrolat and Konyshev he moved to the front and set the pace as two other riders in Canadian Steve Bauer and Irishman Sean Kelly attempted to bridge the gap up to LeMond and the lead group. Bauer ended up getting a flat tire essentially ending his hopes at a high finish while Sean Kelly was able to fight his way to the front group, which was bad news for LeMond and the others as Kelly was one of the best sprinters in the world. Fignon was able to rejoin the lead group as well and as the race approached the finish Fignon attacked on numerous occasions trying to drop the remaining riders. Rooks also launched an attack to go for the solo victory but was caught by LeMond, Fignon and the others. Inside the final kilometer Fignon continued attacking trying to break free, but just couldn't force open a gap and began to fall back as the sprint materialized eventually finishing in 6th place. LeMond, Konyshev and Kelly were the strongest riders when it came to the final sprint for victory and they finished in that order. After the race LeMond said that he did not feel well and even considered abandoning the race. With two laps to go he began feeling stronger and stated, "I was racing for the Gold medal. I wanted that World Championship. And with one kilometer to go, I knew I could get it." LeMond was only the fifth person in history to win both the Tour de France and the World Championship in the same year. In December, ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine named LeMond its 1989 "Sportsman of the Year", the first time a cyclist received the honor.