Greg LeMond
Gregory James LeMond is an American former road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France three times and the Road Race World Championship twice, becoming the only American male to win the former.
LeMond began his professional cycling career in 1981. Two years later, LeMond became the first American male cyclist to win the Road World Championship. He won the Tour de France in 1986, becoming the first non-European professional cyclist to win the men's Tour. LeMond 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, LeMond 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 nine 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. LeMond's other business interests have included restaurants, real estate, and consumer fitness equipment. He is also a vocal opponent of performance-enhancing drug use in cycling and is a founding board member of 1in6, a nonprofit charity that assists male victims of child sex abuse.
Early life and amateur career
LeMond was born to Bob and Bertha LeMond on June 26, 1961, 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 north of Carson City, Nevada. LeMond 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 that these outdoor activities helped keep him out of trouble. LeMond stated, "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 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." He also said, "That's one of the traits. It's the inability to sit down to 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. He soon biked almost daily to high school, often riding 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 the following year, and after dominating the Intermediate category and winning the first 11 races he entered, LeMond received permission to ride against older, more seasoned competitors in the Junior category.
In 1977, at age 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. He 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, winning 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 six-week European racing campaign. There, LeMond 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 ." That victory, and the subsequent press coverage, raised LeMond's profile in Europe and he was scouted at his next event by Cyrille Guimard, the Renault–Elf–Gitane team's directeur sportif. Guimard said that he was impressed with LeMond's spirit, and told him, "You have the fire to be a great champion", before offering LeMond a professional contract for 1981 with Renault. After returning 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. LeMond 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 Critérium du 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. LeMond stated, "It showed me that I had the kind of climbing ability that you need to win the top European stage races." He won a total of five races in his rookie season of 1981.On April 11, 1982, LeMond broke his collarbone while racing the cycling classic Liège–Bastogne–Liège. 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 five seconds over LeMond, with another five 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. At age 21, LeMond was the first American pro to win a medal at the World's since Frank Kramer took silver in 1912. LeMond stated, "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 in 1983, LeMond won the Road World Championship in Altenrhein, Switzerland outright, becoming the first American male cyclist to do so. 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.