Greg was absolutely the greatest rider of his generation, barring that shooting accident he could have had 5 tour wins, as there was no one in his class from the mid to late 80s. His TT in Paris against Fignon was poetic, a real masterclass in bike riding. Great to see him flourishing again, a real good guy with still tons to offer the world of cycling. .Power too you Greg.
Well ... it would have been great to see him battle Fignon if both had stayed healthy. I was never a Fignon fan but he was pretty awesome at his best. Fun to argue about.
Wow. I'm 62 and this takes me back to my amateur racing in my 20's! The strategy, working the gears, drafting, heart rate, cadence, climbing out of the saddle, as low as I could go on the drops, the joy of carb loading on pasta the day before! The primal fatigue after a race and the deepest sleep after it was over!
I feel the same way about my time mountain bike racing in the early 90s. Best time of my life. Unfortunately I developed ME/CFS in 93 and never recovered. There was less strategy in XC racing, but it was still a lot of fun.
@@robbiddlecombe8392 that whole era.. Sean Yates, mattieu ven der poels dad, ardi. It was a glorious time for cycling. Check out the nissan classic races on RU-vid. I think its on a channel called classic cycling and watch all the greats and Brian Smith🤣
There can't be a more deserving winner of the Congressional Gold Medal. His win in 89 was one of the great moments in sport, made even better by what he had to overcome.
His 89 victory was beyond thrilling and 90 was so impressive from a tactical standpoint but I always felt like he was playing catch up. He was so super-focused on trying to get as many wins as he could back into his "spilt basket". When he won his 2nd the entire cycling community were aware it should've been his 4th or 5th and when he won his 3rd it should've been his 5th or 6th. Like he was chasing himself.
@@darrellcriswell9919 why not? 7/11 used all the same equipment in the previous Tour. Francisco Moser used even more extreme tech to break Merckx's hour record in 84. Fignon had the equipment available, he chose not to use it. He even used a solid disc wheel, not a smart choice in a crosswind. It is regrettable that the title was decided by technology not tactics, I would like to see a "retro" Tour. Everyone on steel single speeds with no teamwork allowed. Every man for himself.
@@herwig666 Yes, of course. Us american fans have lots of great reasons to love LeMond. It's his story that is truly one of the great sporting comebacks. Having said that, nobody can touch Merckx.
GOAT?...no, that undeniably goes to Merckx (and just possibly in a few more years to MvdP!) But what younger fans and riders don't realize is what a groundbreaking, uphill struggle Greg surmounted early in his career, long before his awe-inspiring comeback. For an American kid to break into the Euro-centric world of cycling, win the world championships, win the Superprestige, join the (arguably) strongest team etc. etc., this was all virtually unthinkable to the (small) U.S. cycling sub-culture...I don't think fans in the post-Lance world, where numerous U.S. riders and teams are doing well on the world stage, have a good sense of just how many barriers Greg Lemond broke down!
merckx is the goat by such a huge margin you have to be totally unnformed to put another name out there. kelly is second. valverde is 5th. lemond isent even top 20. lance has a way better palmares that lemond even without his tour wins! think about that
Had a hour with him over lunch at a trade show in Toronto some years back. Terrific guy, he was one of those blokes who seemed to be honestly interested in your story. He seemed genuinely surprised when I recounted seeing him, maybe 10-15 metres away from where I was standing, fuming away waiting for a wheel on the Col de Marie Blanc in the 90 Tour.. He said he thought he'd lost the Tour then, he waited for ages for his car, that old road was basically a single lane up...
@@williamoftexas1489 Truth be told there were I think 5-6 other industry guys there as well, some he knew, others he didn't, but true class, he went around to each of us and asked our name, shook our hands and asked us about ourselves, I remember telling him I was just a hack cyclist, he laughed and said, so am I... Very warm and funny guy, glad you had a similar experience!
I remember Eddy saying it hindered Greg being an American. That if Greg had been born and raised in Belgium his talent would've been recognized sooner and he would've been pushed, tutored and praised much more fervently. Eddy said if Greg was Belgian or French he would have been the best ever. Whether he meant it or was just being kind (Eddy is kind) I don't know.
My wife, daughter and I played a game I heard on a radio talk show recently. Each was to name the three people they would most like to sit down and have lunch with. Greg was my #1. I love this guy!!
He waa fun to chat with when he was 15. Him and his dad parked their VW Westphilia next to my van. We chatted before the race in Santa Cruz Ca. I became an instant fan.
@@richardstaal5559 there always has to be a contrarian. Lemond was a cycling prodigy during his teenage years. U can find interviews of his early contemporaries and they say he was a very strong rider. He beat the Russian team by himself during the Coors classic. Eddy Merckx is the undisputed GOAT. Its not even close. Armstrong only focused on the tour. From what I understand, the earlier forms of dope didnt really increase performance like EPO. Look into the allegations of doping during the 69 Giro, and how Merckx responded with the biggest winning margin in modern Tour history ( nearly 18 minutes.) Over 500 victories. Theres lots of arguing over whos the GOAT in other sports, but in cycling theres only one, MERCKX.
@@PoliticusRex632 Coppi definitely one of the greats. Merckx dominated the tours, the classics and he did his share of track racing. Hinault had that type of succes on the road and with the classics. Bartali without ww2 wouldve won more tours.
In Sausalito, Ca. I was coming back from a ride and in the corner of my eye I could see this short Asian man walking out of a building, turns out it was a bike shop, with Greg LeMond. Greg had 2 bikes with him and the other guy had a titanium bike that was unmarked. It looked like a prototype of Gregs for the next season to come as a frame/bike manufacturer. I kept riding and said “Wow that was Greg LeMond!” The next day I jumped out on my CX bike and headed to Mt Tam from San Fran. When I made it to Mill Valley I started thinking of all my possible routes I could take to Fairfax and wouldn’t you know it that Asian guy and Greg LeMond came out of the woodwork and turned right in front of me. Wow! I grabbed a wheel and let them know I was there and they just nodded and kept talking. Then @ the Book Depot a dude on a Mt. Bike and backpack grabs my wheel and says in French “Who are you? You don’t look like anyone.” Just then Greg laughs and says “Leave him along he is just sucking on our wheels”. I played dumb as to not know what they were saying ... Long story short, Greg gave that rude French speaking older man an interview while riding up Mt. Tam and he hated him for it. The most important thing I got from there conversation was that Bernard Hinault and Greg were always hoping that the other would come up positive for drug testing. Greg knew that Bernard was receiving medical/nutritional advice years prior and they were not sharing with Greg. Hinault on the other hand knew that all the young riders were beginning doping programs and assumed Greg was too. Also Greg was American and still winning? Hinault one day welcomed as many test as possible unannounced to prove he was not doping, but Greg felt that Bernard did it to see if he was really as good as being witnessed. Turns out LeMond and Hinault VO2 max was greater than most racers anywhere in the world. Thus the outrage of of both riders when accused of “being on the Juice”. I will not forget that ride ... ever. Oh yeah, the Asian guy then turns onto the road and Greg follows ending the interview. The Frenchman asked me in English if I knew the way to Fairfax, I said “OUI,Oui, je connais le chemin de Fairfax” and kept climbing up Mt. Tam and he followed me never saying a single word ... so I went Stenson Beach. LOL, he followed.
I absolutely love listening to Greg talk. His brain is kicking out ideas faster than his mouth can put them in sentences. He has so much to offer and I'm glad the feud with Lance has died down. I ride my LeMond Zurich every chance I get.
This guy is really the real deal. Just pure talent, hard work, & guts. The last OG. He deserves more recognition than Armstrong. When cycling & winning really meant for champs, and not cheats.
So true. He's always been the same. Lance going after Greg was his biggest sin in my opinion. That story alone tells you everything you needed to know about that pagan idiot.
100%. Such a classy guy. Side note, just picked up an old Buenos Aires on Craigslist. 853 steel rides like butter. Great rider and he made great bikes. Ride on Greg 🚴♂️💨🤘
So true!The hero of our youth,even in Europe after his bad hunting accident-maybe the last clean guy to win the tour! I met him back in the eighties at “le grand boucle” and he and his wife had been soo paranoid about the food - they thought maybe someone would put some drugs in there to have him disqualified. The better he got,the more fun about racing went away-politics in the team,he beeing not a french rider...He basically had to fight EVERYBODY! A real WORLD CLASS RIDER!
John Richards LeMond has not been a lucky person, first the dual(or betrayal rather) with Hinault, there’s the unfortunately hunting accident, then assault from Lance Armstrong, dropped by Trek. LeMond should be way more celebrated than he actually is now. He is the best cyclist America ever had.
I've no doubt Greg thinks he was clean, but in '89 he went from zero to hero in 10 days, from losing 17 minutes on a stage, to taking 2nd in the final ITT, after being prescribed "iron injections" and "sleeping pills" by ADR team Dr Yvan Vanmol - www.dopeology.org/people/Yvan_Vanmol Greg was still recovering from his gunshot injury, had zero pre-Giro form, and got a lot worse during the race both pysically and mentally all but giving up on pro-cycling. But by the end of that race he was in tour winning form against known dopers. I have a lot of respect for Greg, but I think he's a little naive about this period of his life and the honesty/integrity of his team & team Dr.
@@abone2pick Doping then only improved sprinting and weight management, genius. It didn't impact overall results in stage races. If Lemond had doped, he'd have won a lot more stages and 1-day classics at the finish lines. As it was, he could only win the rides that were so hard even leaders would drop out regularly, because all the dopers had was short-term top end muscle speed. There was no existing drug that could get them up to Lemond's ~93 VO2Max and sustained power output. The races Lemond won were never decided by short sprints, but by survival endurance, like the Tours and Worlds. In short, steroids couldn't do a cheater any good if they tried to hold his wheel for while. They'd just make them lock up with lactic acid faster.
An underrated athlete in the whole spectrum of sporting greats. Not only for his accomplishments and come back, but he was the American that kicked in the door for other American riders to follow through en route to the European peleton. A true trailblazer and the only American winner of the Tour de France and one of the all-time cycling greats.
Why hasn't Greg Lemond become a team director? He has so much experience to draw from both success and tragedy, it seems strange the team's are not always pounding on his door to get him to coach there team
Riders who were more of the underdogs in terms of physical strength usually are better when it comes to coaching. Greg had so much natural talent that he didn't need to maximize other tactics and yet still won.
@2:11 "What makes the mountain stages so important is the drafting" If you understand cycling and what it takes to win a grand tour, that statement makes total sense
@@kendu5636 he n his dad were parked in front of my van (they had a cool green VW camper van). We chatted before the Cat one race in Santa Cruz. If I remember right he won that day. Next I watched him race in Pacific Grove and finish 2 1/2 laps ahead of second place. Next time he raced at Leguna Seca and road off the front almost right away n raced the entire 128 mile race about a half mile ahead of the chase pack. That all while he was 15-16 and racing against the best 18-34 age men that USA had. Oh that was same time he raced Cats Hill in Los Gatos and destroyed that field too (including Wayne Stetna USA Road Champion).
I will never forget that final stage as long as I live. All the so-called experts were confounded, and Lemond achieved something which was almost impossible. I was delighted for him and I can honestly say I shouted and cheered so loudly at the TV, that the house must have shook !
@daAnder71 The Tour is no longer looking for French winners. Be serious. The courses are designed to favor climbers from South America or anywhere but the traditional cycling countries. That's why they keep reducing TT kilometers.
Thanks for the video and thanks for all the commentators...for not making me feel the only old man who would remember him...yes these ticking seconds in Paris...we'lll never have that ever again probably.
I think Greg is underrated on the pantheon of the all time greats. He missed two tours he would have won. If he was on a different team in 85 from Hinault he wins in 85. He was better than Hinaukt in 85. He could have one six and if he raced in an earlier era he would have raced and won many classics. Came in 3rd in his first tour. Two incredible world championship wins. I think he was as great a talent as Hinault. Better than Indurain, do we think he rode clean? We know Greg did. Its a shame the hunting accident. He had five in the bag.
I had a little disdain for this fellow in period, because he wasn't a European. He was "too professional" and "too serious". The same sins that Kenny Roberts brought to 500cc motorcycle racing. In a post-Lance world, I am prepared to accept that I was very wrong. This man is a legend. A real legend. Nearly as much of a hero to me as Fignon....
One aspect that Greg Lemond didn’t bring out about the Tour de France is the suffering the the specialist who are not final category riders go through. In the mountains the sprinter specialists and time trial specialists suffer just to not get disqualified by not finishing below minimum time. In the flats the mountain specialists try to not get caught behind a huge break of powerful rouleurs. No day is truly easy.
I watched him beat the best senior one racers USA had in Northern CA when Greg was 15-16. His cardio was incredible. I knew he would go on and race the TdF
He mentions Pantani around 02:25 in. He doesn’t really talk about him, just uses him as an example of staying fresh in the early stages of the tour so a mountain specialist can be fresh in the first mountain stage(s).
GL great cyclist. But it must be understood by the lay public, that professional cycling is a team effort. And people, the T de F, is NOT the only stage race. It may be the biggest, but there are others, Italy, Spain,Switzerland, Sardinia, etc.. plus the classics like Leige Bastonne Leige. And each stage race has points awarded for things like best climber, sprinter, general points, that follow through the season. It's a great sport to get into and watch.
Paul Kimmage (A Rough Ride) describes team Lemond going past when Greg was - ahem - very, very ill with an upset stomach. Kimmage said that if he was in that condition he would give up, but then again he didn't have a chance to win the Tour de France.
Absolute legend but, and don’t hate me please, did he really win the Tour clean? I am sure at that time doping was rife so I just can’t dispel the doubts …. Sorry. PS. I have the same doubts about Wiggins, Froome etc and definitely EPogacar. I have know a few semi pros back in the day and they told me everyone was on it.
I really wish someone ask him if he ever used performance enchanting drugs or blood doping, I guess no way to prove if he did. Correct it was rife in cycling in the 70 and 80:s.
This guy is legendary. .one of the true, honest, gentle, educated, respectful, humble American...if ALL the Americans were like him...The whole world would LOVE IT, not hate it cause of its politics...invade, exploit, enslave...
Yes, people do know who actually doped and speculate on some that may have doped or not. But there are definite dopers who have been exposed. Pantani was one of them.
You know someone is doped when they pass a certain line. Once you been working out for a really long time you develop a good idea of where that line stands.
How about this, I was at the track world championships in Zurich in 83 competing in pro sprint, Gibby Hatton, mark Whitehead and myself went out with Greg and some of his team for a ride on the Saturday, the next day, HE IS WORLD CHAMPION!!😎😎🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️🏁🍺
I saw Greg race a Criterium in Athens Ohio. It believe it was his first race in the U.S. after his 1989 TdF victory. He was riding for someone else on his team and not for himself.
I did a bit of road racing and always got dropped, but after a couple years I ended up pulling my fast buddy all the way home . We road maybe 40 miles out, I drafted off him, but on the 40 miles back , he drafted off me , probably averaging 20+ miles per hour. I got turned off to cycling because soo competitive. Now I do still have a road race bike bike looking to cafe touring 😎
Well no shit if u doing the sport just to compete then it will become something you don't like eventually. Gotta learn how to ride for fun bro that's how you stay consistent.
200 watts at 20mph, 300 at 25, 400 at 28, 500 at 30, silly above 30! Two very average riders working together can nearly always beat the strongest individual on his own. They can take turns at 600W, but no individual can sustain anything like it.
Sometime in the mid 90's I get a phone call from a mate of mine who owns a cycle shop asking me if I wasn't to go to a trade show in Toronto, three day affair, I say sure, we were in Vancouver at the time. So, pile on the jet and off we go, somewhere over the Saskatchewan, my mate tells me were are invited to a lunch with one of his mates who owns this company, OGC, and they have just agreed to carry Lemond bikes, so the much will be with Greg and unknown number of guests... So, the lunch date comes up and we are ushered off to a small board room ,not a large hall, and were we soon joined by Greg, the owner of the company, two ex Canadian pro riders who had just opened up their own shops and ourselves, the was it... Greg first went around to all of us and shook our hands, I commented that I was really only just a hack rider, Greg laughed and said, so am I... We had a hour with him and he was such a down to earth guy, just made use all feel like we had known him for years. I had actually been on the Col de Marie Blanc during the 1990 Tour and seen Greg struggling with a puncture, just below the summit, finally get a team car ( the road was skinny little strip of bitumen the ) suddenly throw that bike down and get his regular bike back. Just on the other side of the summit three of his team had ridden back up the hill and waited for him. Anyway, I recounted this to him and he told me he was sure he lost the Tour then, he was waiting over 5 minutes for his car. His recollection was absolutely vivd, as mine was to this day, but he seemed pleased that I could recount everything so well. Anyways, after coffees and photos, we all trooped off to the booth where he was signing photos and I was amazed at the queue waiting to see him... That hour has stuck with me ever since, Greg is 100% a decent guy and champion..
The explanation of tactics is misleading. The point is that teammates in the peloton sacrifice themselves, i.e., ride all out and then drop out, whereas the break has to go to the finish.
He has been permanently "86'd" by the powers that be via his openly speaking to Armstrong & Co's drug usage. Shall I remind you of the names...? Millions of you yellow wrist band wearing apostles excoriated him at the time and only in the past five years have you most conspicuously changed your tune, you worthless pieces of S...........
@@death2pc relax, Francis. I never wore a yellow wristband. And now that LA has been exposed there should opportunity for Greg to take his rightful place as greatest US cyclist.
I have no inside information, but it seems to me there was a 28 year gap between clean winners, Greg LeMond and Geraint Thomas. My all time sporting hero was Armstrong, so disappointed to find so many of his team members, and competitors, were full of drugs. Doubts about every Spanish or Italian winner in this period (especially Indurain), doubts about Froome and Wiggins. If Thomas is found to have taken drugs I'll just throw my bike into the crusher and find something else to do. LeMond also. To all the other professional cyclists out there, please do not keep disappointing us amateurs who love the sport, and to the professionals who resist, who rely on your legs, heart and determination, you will always be heroes to me.
Cycling has had many Champs, but Greg was 'that guy' , that guy who came, who conquered, despite the set backs. That 89 TDF is forever grained in my mind. It shook the cycling world and in turn made one of the most amazing sports moments in sporting history! .. and then came another Yank and F*** the whole sport up. Yes you, Mr Lance a Lie ALot!
Regarding the buying and selling of races, and what's going on when you watch a race on tv and can see the riders in a small group are talking and you can't hear them because your view is from a moto camera or a helicopter, four words: "Dog In a Hat". It's a book by Joe Parkin. If you haven't read it yet, it's worth its weight in gold in your cycling library. Also a fair bit about doping in Parkin's book too lol. Guaranteed to drop your jaw more than twice while reading it.
Petyr Kowalski Yet he wasn’t...I wonder why??? Maybe no one wanted him. There’s more to Greg than the squeaky clean image he tries to project. Don’t be naive.
surfinDelMar ok mr know-it-all, you realise he went into business and was and is very successful. He didnt go into team management becasue he didnt want to. Its just my opinion that he would have been excellent at it.
@surfinDelMar I've followed Greg's career since he was 19 years old, and have never seen or heard of anyone (except Jonathan Boyer, Hinault, Fignon and Armstrong) making any disparaging remarks about Lemond. And we all know those listed riders all had their own axe to grind!
@@johns3106 What makes you think Greg doesn't have his own axe to grind? Especially when it doesn't place him at the top of the cycling world in America. I like Greg but he has always struck me as a bit of a whiner. These guys are doing superhuman efforts, especially riders in the TdF, and it's a sport that couldn't be more perfect for doping. If you don't do it, you won't win. Plain and simple. If nothing else for faster recovery alone. You're riding more recovered and faster the next day over a rival who isn't doping. I find Greg's results highly suspicious. People think the Tour is clean now that the evil Mr. Armstrong is gone. Please. Average speed hasn't dropped. Do you really need me to connect the dots?
I'm always amazed that guys who were 140lbs as tour riders blow up to 220lbs after retirement. The muscles are there, nothing else. I'm 6-1 185 and would need to be 130lbs to even glimpse being "fast". Riis at 178lbs was a domestique, but he went to 158lbs and won the Tour
I love Greg. Still our only American tour winner. The 89 time trial is the greatest tour moment. Greg paid his dues at a time when Americans didn't even know the Tour existed. A great competitor Unlike that lying , cheating, and disgraceful person whose name I will not mention here.. Thanks for everything Greg,
Nobody uses the Tour de France for training? How quickly the sport changes! This year (2023), Mathieu van der Poel clearly used the Tour as training for the world championship road race two weeks later, that he ended up winning. At the Tour his only real job was to lead out Jasper Philipsen in the bunch sprints. Otherwise, he was training. They're getting closer to the point where anyone serious about winning the Tour needs to make that their only goal for the season. Everyone else will be a domestique or trying to win a stage or one of the other jerseys. Or training.
Tactical and raw talent , and in a way you are a racing driver, can be dangerous.. and you need to be able to handle the bike as a racing driver.. Boy its complicated and brutal. Even club rides turn out that way. I'm looking into touring, I dont think will make it to win the tour deFrance 🥸😔😁
Dreaming he was in the tour of Italy and could barely get up the mountain and 5 weeks later went on the to win the tour.. bullshit. Epo came into use that year
Greg was aware lance was doping when he was competing with him in the early 90s and was actually cool friends with him . He never said anything about lance until he started overshadowing him
I made a comment on this video , what dose it have to do with you , are you so bored with your life you idiot will not reply to anymore of your comments go find some freinds get a life troll
What's so amazing about Greg was that riders before him "Won" and said they doped and riders after him "Won" and said they doped but Greg's knowledge of the sport allowed him to win without doping. Without the shooting accident Greg might have won 5 in a row! 1986-1990
Greg always looked a pure natural on a bike, pure class act.lt was horrible to see that scum bag bully armstrong try to ruin him. But it was great to see how it all ended.