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Lemond Interview from 1998

Mar 17, 2009
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pleyser said:
I found this article from the defunct publication "Bicyclist" back in 1998.

http://www.roble.net/marquis/coaching/lemond98.html

With Lemond being back in the headlines, it's interesting to read his comments on doping with no references to Lance. Paul Kochli is referred to as being against doping at the time, along with mentions of Andy Hampsten Eric Boyer and Steve Bauer.
The lack of reference to Armstrong is completely understandable when you look at when the interview dates from. In 1998 Armstrong had not done anything outstandingly different on the bike from pre-cancer. It looks like this is pre Vuelta and possibly pre-Festina, certainly before the full facts were apparent from Festina

The knowledge regarding EPO and its benefits was nowhere near as widely known - look at the emphasis Lemond puts on the benefits of steroids over EPO and the idea that it had no benefit in one day races.

Finally by his own admission Lemond had been away from the European scene for nigh on 4 years. Things had changed a lot.
 

Polish

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Mar 11, 2009
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Thanks for the link, pleyser. Great interview.

As a Greg fanboy and having watched the decline of Greg and the rise of Big Mig at the TdF, that article brings back the memories. And it rings TRUE.

I think Greg summed it up truthfully when he states:

"Toward the end, I always wondered, 'Is everyone taking drugs, while I stay clean, causing me to perform so poorly?' But there wasn't a drug in the world that would've helped me."

Those of us who were following the TdF back then remember well - Greg sucked at the end of his TdF career. Oh well. We were all looking for reasons. Training? Motivation? Medical issues? But seriously, other riders doing EPO had NOTHING to do with Greg sucking.

Years after this article came out, Greg started with the "I could not keep up because of EPO". BS IMO. Not only BS imo, but it has created a little army of Big Mig Haters. Sheesh.
 
Polish said:
Thanks for the link, pleyser. Great interview.

As a Greg fanboy and having watched the decline of Greg and the rise of Big Mig at the TdF, that article brings back the memories. And it rings TRUE.

I think Greg summed it up truthfully when he states:

"Toward the end, I always wondered, 'Is everyone taking drugs, while I stay clean, causing me to perform so poorly?' But there wasn't a drug in the world that would've helped me."

Those of us who were following the TdF back then remember well - Greg sucked at the end of his TdF career. Oh well. We were all looking for reasons. Training? Motivation? Medical issues? But seriously, other riders doing EPO had NOTHING to do with Greg sucking.

Years after this article came out, Greg started with the "I could not keep up because of EPO". BS IMO. Not only BS imo, but it has created a little army of Big Mig Haters. Sheesh.

In a world where chapters of the Flat Earth Society still exist I suppose you are welcome to make that statement. Science is largely witchcraft anyway.:rolleyes:
 

Polish

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Hugh Januss said:
In a world where chapters of the Flat Earth Society still exist I suppose you are welcome to make that statement. Science is largely witchcraft anyway.:rolleyes:


Hugh, would you agree with me that Greg sucked at the end of his TdF career?
 
Polish said:
Hugh, would you agree with me that Greg sucked at the end of his TdF career?
I suppose you mean the gap between LeMond and his opponents was bigger than the physical advantage EPO gave. You're probably right in that. However, you forget about other consequences for a clean top-class rider who can't keep up with the best anymore: insecurity, overtraining in an attempt to catch up, etc. There are many factors involved. And there's also the fact that LeMond wasn't getting any younger (although this shouldn't have been a factor except for 1993 and 1994).
 

Polish

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JMBeaushrimp said:
to what end?

He could not make it to the end. Multiple DNFs.
It is no secret that he sucked at the end of his career.
Greg has admitted he sucked at the end of his career.
 
Jul 6, 2010
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Polish said:
He could not make it to the end. Multiple DNFs.
It is no secret that he sucked at the end of his career.
Greg has admitted he sucked at the end of his career.

Let me know who doesn't suck at the END of a career. That's why it's called the 'end of a career'. What's your point? A trickling out of performance and talent at the end of career means someone doped? I really hope you're kidding...
 

buckwheat

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Precisely

ultimobici said:
The lack of reference to Armstrong is completely understandable when you look at when the interview dates from. In 1998 Armstrong had not done anything outstandingly different on the bike from pre-cancer. It looks like this is pre Vuelta and possibly pre-Festina, certainly before the full facts were apparent from Festina

The knowledge regarding EPO and its benefits was nowhere near as widely known - look at the emphasis Lemond puts on the benefits of steroids over EPO and the idea that it had no benefit in one day races.

Finally by his own admission Lemond had been away from the European scene for nigh on 4 years. Things had changed a lot.

I remember from that time when the reports of the deaths started to filter back to the states.

It was still very hard to grasp the impact that EPO could have.

I think that most athletes assumed that you had to look physically different for the drugs to have a significant effect.

We were so conditioned to the physiques of Ben Johnson, and Flo Jo and it skewed one's thinking, unless you had direct contact with blood doping or blood enhancing hormones.

Looking back you'd realize the gigantic advantage this kind of cheating gave to people like Lasse Viren, but at the time it just seemed to be an oddity.
 

Polish

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JMBeaushrimp said:
Let me know who doesn't suck at the END of a career. That's why it's called the 'end of a career'. What's your point? A trickling out of performance and talent at the end of career means someone doped? I really hope you're kidding...

My point is that other riders using EPO had nothing to do with Greg's end of career suckness. It is a Myth.
 

buckwheat

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Polish said:
My point is that other riders using EPO had nothing to do with Greg's end of career suckness. It is a Myth.

No, it really isn't. LeMond was saying in that interview, that first and foremost he was a competitor.

He was noted during his career for being honest about how he felt lousy most of the time when he was training.

Regarding '91 he was quoted as saying he was in the best shape of his post shooting career and yet he couldn't hang.

Retrospectively, it's clear that from then onward, he was being victimized by a peloton that made it impossible for a clean rider to keep up.

Then he trained harder and got slower because he was overtrained, not realizing or believing outside factors (EPO) had come into play on a wide scale.
 
Jul 6, 2010
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Polish said:
My point is that other riders using EPO had nothing to do with Greg's end of career suckness. It is a Myth.

Might have had a bit more to do with getting old, and suffering from the lingering effects of being shot. No one talks about that. Nothing like getting blasted with a shotgun... I would have to say that that's gotta suck...
 

Polish

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buckwheat said:
No, it really isn't. LeMond was saying in that interview, that first and foremost he was a competitor.

He was noted during his career for being honest about how he felt lousy most of the time when he was training.

Regarding '91 he was quoted as saying he was in the best shape of his post shooting career and yet he couldn't hang.

Retrospectively, it's clear that from then onward, he was being victimized by a peloton that made it impossible for a clean rider to keep up.

Then he trained harder and got slower because he was overtrained, not realizing or believing outside factors (EPO) had come into play on a wide scale.

"best shape" - Myth.
"victimized" - Myth
"trained harder" - Myth
"overtrained" - omg Myth
 
May 12, 2009
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I don't know whether he overtrained or not. But he was clearly on his way down, and what I remember from the time was mostly speculation around lead poisoning from the shot, or some sort of weird mitochondrial thing.
I don't remember much of Greg coming out and saying doping was a problem then, which is why I have somewhat of an issue with him condemning it now.
 
slcbiker said:
I don't know whether he overtrained or not. But he was clearly on his way down, and what I remember from the time was mostly speculation around lead poisoning from the shot, or some sort of weird mitochondrial thing.
I don't remember much of Greg coming out and saying doping was a problem then, which is why I have somewhat of an issue with him condemning it now.

I have the Cycle Sport issue which was dedicated to LeMond on his retirement and he gave his health as the biggest reason for his decline but also said that there were a lot of unsavoury things happening in cycling at the time and he was definitely alluding to the rise of EPO, that was 1994 so its not like he didnt talk about it.
 

Polish

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Barrus said:
Polish, do you have anything to really dispute these statements, and explain why they are myths in your mind?

"best shape" - Myth.
Greg's results speak for themselves. Not in the "best shape" in 91 lol.
Greg's palamares:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Lemond

"victimized" - Myth.
In the OP article Greg states " Here in America you can train at altitude any time you want and get the same benefit from altitude as from EPO."
Hardly the words of someone who felt victimized.
Clean riders could and did keep up - see Andy Hampsten

"trained harder" - Myth
Lance trained much harder than Greg. Lance is the training standard.
Besides, greg did not need to train. He could "get off the couch" and be ready to race. That actually is NOT a myth lol.

"overtrained" - omg Myth
It was a medical issues related to the gunshot wound.
 
Jul 6, 2010
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Polish;

Seriously. What's your schtick? You seem to be picking fights that can have no winner. Apart from your random pronouncements, there's not a lot of substance to your arguments. Help me out, I want me to love you...
 

Barrus

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Polish said:
"best shape" - Myth.
Greg's results speak for themselves. Not in the "best shape" in 91 lol.
Greg's palamares:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Lemond

"victimized" - Myth.
In the OP article Greg states " Here in America you can train at altitude any time you want and get the same benefit from altitude as from EPO."
Hardly the words of someone who felt victimized.
Clean riders could and did keep up - see Andy Hampsten

"trained harder" - Myth
Lance trained much harder than Greg. Lance is the training standard.
Besides, greg did not need to train. He could "get off the couch" and be ready to race. That actually is NOT a myth lol.

"overtrained" - omg Myth
It was a medical issues related to the gunshot wound.

Now, could you not include that earlier? In such a way we can at least debate the statements you make and thus create a discussion.

Anyway, at least concerned about victimized, he does not need to feel victimized to be victimized, the simple fact is that EPO ensures a much larger increase than training at altitude could provide
 

buckwheat

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Polish said:
"best shape" - Myth.
Greg's results speak for themselves. Not in the "best shape" in 91 lol.
Greg's palamares:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Lemond.

He sucked in '89 before the Tour. He had mono I believe in '90 and was out for 3 months. If I can find a link for the '91 statement I'll post it but I'm almost certain he said it was his best training leading up to a TdF post shooting.

Polish said:
""victimized" - Myth.
In the OP article Greg states " Here in America you can train at altitude any time you want and get the same benefit from altitude as from EPO."
Hardly the words of someone who felt victimized.
Clean riders could and did keep up - see Andy Hampsten.

First of all, anyone who wasn't cheating was victimized.

At the time GL made that statement about altitude the extent of improvement EPO conferred wasn't recognized.


Polish said:
"trained harder" - Myth
Lance trained much harder than Greg. Lance is the training standard.
Besides, greg did not need to train. He could "get off the couch" and be ready to race. That actually is NOT a myth lol..

One of the benefits of cheating with hormones is that you can train harder and recover so it's no surprise LA could handle a big training load.

LeMond was a competitor so he assumed his failure was with his preparation and tried to train harder resulting in him digging a hole he couldn't climb out of. Go ride 1,000 km's a week and let us know how it goes.


Polish said:
"overtrained" - omg Myth
It was a medical issues related to the gunshot wound.

Obviously he had medical issues related to the shooting. And it was wounds plural and the remaining lead in his body from the birdshot. You're a bright guy, eh? I'm sure you can juggle the fact that it was two issues at the same time.
 

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