Greg LeMond - Underrated & Unappreciated

[rhubroma]

Some of Greg's whining was due I think to his own ferocious competitive spirit.

He also had a heluva time "exploding" onto the scene as the only young American rider in, not only a French, but also European dominated sport. In fact he never really got the hang of it, even after the lessons learned from his own disingenuous trust in thinking the Badger would have actually given up his chance at a record-breaking sixth Tour just to help Greg win his first.

And before that he had to race on the same team with Fignon during the early years of his career, when the latter reached apotheosis for his consecutive Grand Boucle wins.

The obstacles he faced to emerge as he did, in addition to the hunting accident that nearly cost him his life, means that in the final analysis his was a sensational performance.

 

[max_powers]

Even better, for me, anyhow, would be the 1983 Worlds. Coach Eddie B. used to brag about how Greg used every tool in the book (handed down from Eddie B., of course) to ensure his win. '83 was not as exciting as '89, but it shows LeMond coming into the best form of his life, riding against a talented and motivated field, and controlling the race, leaving nothing to chance, at the age of 22. Absolutely brilliant.

Somebody tell please us if a video of this race exists.

Yes Greg could not collect an Olympic medal in 1984 as pros were not allowed then. I was fortunate enought to ride along with him and many teams on that Olympic course the Thursday before the Sunday race ( loose security back then) while he was taping a riders's level view for TV with a full face helmet with a camera attached to it. He kept up fine on the hilly course. Resplendid in Rainbow!

Some other American guy won the gold tho...

 

[pmcg76]

LeMond's 1989 ADR team also had Eddy Planckart, but he dropped out. It was one of the weakest teams in the Tour, no doubt. 1990 was another story, the team was one of the strongest at the start. Robert Millar was to be his climbing helper, but he crashed early on and struggled. There was a shot of him somewhere riding with a neck brace.

By 1991 things were different, and Icefire remembers it correctly.

While I think Greg got the short end of the stick in 1985, he didn't handle it well in front of the cameras. In 1986 he did better, but perhaps because he won. There are a few clips of him complaining late in his career, but I think by then the media was pushing him because he was riding so poorly as the clean man in a dirty world and he was grasping for answers.


Looks like someone's chain broke on a training ride today.

Millar in the neckbrace was 1991 not 90, but Millar did drop out in 1990, I remember he paced Ronan Pensec up Alpe d'Huez to keep the yellow jersey for another day before dropping out a few days later I think.

Z did have a good team in 1990, Millar, Pensec, Boyer, Kvalsvoll were all decent climbers. However I thing on the stage he punctured in the mountains, all the Z guys dropped back to help but Chiappucci was attacking up front, LeMond panicked and left all his team-mates behind but he did catch Chiapucci

 

[icefire]

I thought his team in 1990 was much stronger. ADR in 1989 were hardly able to offer LeMond any support during the tour, which is why he did so much wheel sucking (of other teams). But Z-Peugeot had a much bigger budget and in 1990 had riders like Ronan Pensec and Robert Millar on their roster. Pensec certainly rode the 1990 tour (not sure about Millar) as he wore the maillot jaune for several days.

EDIT: Z team for 1990 (finishers): Lemond, Eric Boyer, Pensec, Jerome Simon, Atle Kvalsvoll, Bruno Cornillet, Gilbert Duclosse-Lassalle, Francois LeMarchand.

ADR team for 1989 (finishers): LeMond, Rene Martens, Johan Museeuw, Johan Lammerts.

It's true that his Z 1990 team was much better than ADR 1989. But letting a break with Bauer and Chiapucci early in the race giving away the lead until the very end released them of much work. That was a brilliant race strategy nobody can criticise without being unfair, although we'll never know if Chiapucci would have lost so much time in Luz Ardiden without his wild solo breakway early in that stage. It was in 1991 when he had to do real work and he paid for it. His words at the stage finish in Jaca towards Delgado and his team were those of a crybaby. He got the answer the day after on the road.

 

[pmcg76]

The 1989 Tour was the first Tour I followed so LeMond was an instant hero but I came to dislike LeMond as a money grabbing lazy git. This is coloured by the fact that he came to ride in the Nissan Classic in 1990 but dropped out on the first day and spent the rest of the week golfing. This incident is described in Joe Parkin's book A Dog in a hat when he says LeMond was struggling to even stay with the peloton. When Parkin asked LeMond if he had been training, LeMond replied that he had been playing tennis for the previous few weeks.

When LeMond talks, he seems to just ramble endlessly, the conversation can shot of in any direction and this has been confirmed in most interviews with him. The wheelsucking thing was mostly linked to the 89 Tour I think and even LeMond himself has admitted he was never the athlete post shooting that he had been before so he needed to ride more smartly.

 

[Big Doopie]

When LeMond talks, he seems to just ramble endlessly, the conversation can shot of in any direction and this has been confirmed in most interviews with him.

he has been quite open about the fact that he suffers from ADD and that causes the often tangential thought process as he speaks. hardly something to hold against someone.

despite this, he was universally loved by the press and the french (even while going up against and defeating their very own hinault and fignon) because of his openness and smiley personality in interviews.

what is sad about lemond is that he probably never achieved the results that his abilities should have garnered. first coming up in a team with fignon, then hinault, in a cycling culture that was completely euro. he had to break new ground and at times -- understandably -- he showed his innocence. you have to remember that in 1983 -- the year his teammate fignon first won the tour -- lemond won the super prestige pernod (top ranked rider for the year) at the age of 22-23. he was ill in his first tour and still managed 3rd. the shooting incident cost him two of his best years and epo many of the rest.

he played probably the best tactical race anyone has ever ridden in the tour in 1989. in 1990 his z-peugeot squad was actually the best team in the race. by 1991, that same team that had won the team competition could no longer follow the epo-teams and was simply no longer competitive. that happened over the space of one year.

i have never found lemond to be a whiner. he always has come across as cheery, modest, with an aw, shucks kind of attitude. and even though he was an incredible competitor he was a good sport and team player -- supporting pensec to the last minute before taking things into his own hands when he had to in 1990.

i believe that the stands he has taken since retiring have shown an incredible amount of courage. While other champions' personalities rarely live up to their reputations as riders, lemond's courage of personality actually dwarfs his athletic achievements.

i think the most fascinating thing was a french poll that voted him the second greatest cyclist of the 20th century after merckx. now, i wouldn't go that far, but there is something quite revealing that an american rider who defeated both hinault and fignon and whose career and results were cut short dramatically by various events was recognized in such a way. then again, what do the french know about cycling...?

 

[Microchip]

+1 for this thread and supportive replies!!

 

[Race Radio]

Great day at Interbike today. Big crowd at the Look booth to see Greg and the 25th anniversary frame.....funny, almost no mention of Lance at the Trek booth.

 

[Microchip]

i think the most fascinating thing was a french poll that voted him the second greatest cyclist of the 20th century after merckx. now, i wouldn't go that far, but there is something quite revealing that an american rider who defeated both hinault and fignon and whose career and results were cut short dramatically by various events was recognized in such a way. then again, what do the french know about cycling...?

How excellent! Didn't know this about him, always liked him and his disposition. Has a genuine-ness about him.

 

[ChrisE]

Yes, we all know how this inspired many fans

If we all know that, then why do we have a thread about how GL does not get his due?

 

[ChrisE]

The 1989 Tour was the first Tour I followed so LeMond was an instant hero but I came to dislike LeMond as a money grabbing lazy git. This is coloured by the fact that he came to ride in the Nissan Classic in 1990 but dropped out on the first day and spent the rest of the week golfing. This incident is described in Joe Parkin's book A Dog in a hat when he says LeMond was struggling to even stay with the peloton. When Parkin asked LeMond if he had been training, LeMond replied that he had been playing tennis for the previous few weeks.

When LeMond talks, he seems to just ramble endlessly, the conversation can shot of in any direction and this has been confirmed in most interviews with him. The wheelsucking thing was mostly linked to the 89 Tour I think and even LeMond himself has admitted he was never the athlete post shooting that he had been before so he needed to ride more smartly.

LOL. If somebody nowadays pulled that crap in the spring then showed up and won the tour, they would be tried, found guilty, and executed in the clinic.

What a perfect storm. Not as good after the shooting (though I think I read he was putting out more power than ever before in 1991), mystery disease, tooling around instead of training, then EPO coming on the scene to finally put the nail in the career coffin. I would be ****ed as well.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

LOL. If somebody nowadays pulled that crap in the spring then showed up and won the tour, they would be tried, found guilty, and executed in the clinic.

What a perfect storm. Not as good after the shooting (though I think I read he was putting out more power than ever before in 1991), mystery disease, tooling around instead of training, then EPO coming on the scene to finally put the nail in the career coffin. I would be ****ed as well.

And with good reason - of course The Nissan classic was held in early October, which is at the end of the season.

 

[dlwssonic]

From a neutral point of view I think he got a bit jealous of armstrong.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

He also had a heluva time "exploding" onto the scene as the only young American rider in, not only a French, but also European dominated sport..

Jonathan Boyer actually got there before Greg did, but the two didn't get along, at all. Greg even openly racing against Boyer in the Worlds without denying it. Considering what's since been revealed about Greg's youth, and Boyer's adulthood, it's easy to see severe cross-currents running when the two got in the same proximity.

Millar in the neckbrace was 1991 not 90...

Good memory there, your entire post.

It was in 1991 when he had to do real work and he paid for it. His words at the stage finish in Jaca towards Delgado and his team were those of a crybaby. He got the answer the day after on the road.

I had to dig it up, and don't think he was being a crybaby at all, and believe if you watch again you'll agree. Watch the clip here, interview in question starts at 1:55.

Here's an example of what I mean when I say the media started to push his buttons at the end of his career. Clip here.

 

[pmcg76]

From a neutral point of view I think he got a bit jealous of armstrong.

He got a bit jealous when he found out Armstrong was working with Ferrari, thus justifiably becoming suspicious of his achievements.

 

[ChrisE]

He got a bit jealous when he found out Armstrong was working with Ferrari, thus justifiably becoming suspicious of his achievements.

Yes, and a coincidence that the fanboy routine the 3 previous years towards LA evaporated along with the Ferrari revelation, which in turn coincided with GL becoming privy to LA's physiological numbers he spewed over the phone to LA upon winning his third tour. Yes, alot of perfect storms here.

 

[Race Radio]

He got a bit jealous when he found out Armstrong was working with Ferrari, thus justifiably becoming suspicious of his achievements.

Of course this only got worse after Armstrong told a table full of people he was going to call John Burke and bury Greg, then proceeded to do just that. This was followed by the hiring of a PR company whose job it was to smear Greg.

 

[9000ft]

Well, it didn't take long for the post to become about he who must not be named rather than Greg Lemond.

 

[ChrisE]

Well, it didn't take long for the post to become about he who must not be named rather than Greg Lemond.

Yes, RR can't seem to help himself.

 

[Race Radio]

Yes, RR can't seem to help himself.

Read the thread....did not start with me

 

[ChrisE]

Read the thread....did not start with me

You piled on with your joke about the bike show. You could be the voice of reason and harmony in the forum, yet you use your forum celebrity to further a campaign of acidic vitriol.

I almost wrote that without laughing.

 

[patricknd]

You piled on with your joke about the bike show. You could be the voice of reason and harmony in the forum, yet you use your forum celebrity to further a campaign of acidic vitriol.

I almost wrote that without laughing.

there's no way to read it without laughing

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

Cool it with the off-topic and clinic stuff. This an appreciation thread. There's space for the other stuff in the clinic.

Susan

 

[usedtobefast]

Cool it with the off-topic and clinic stuff. This an appreciation thread. There's space for the other stuff in the clinic.

Susan

thanks Susan

 

[Race Radio]

Yeah, Greg is tired of this...