GREG LEMOND TEAM Z SOFTWARE
‘I’m working on some cool new designs and software which will give recreational riders a new experience.’ ‘So many things are established in cycling because it’s the way they’ve always been done, but I like to re-evaluate everything,’ he explains. LeMond now plans to harness his knowledge of cycling technology and athletic performance to deliver new bike designs and training solutions through his LeMond Bicycles brand. His historic time-trial win on the final stage of the 1989 Tour was aided by a rear disc wheel, a modified helmet, aerodynamic bars and hours of forensic wind-tunnel analysis. I was one of the first to get into SRM and that was a major transformation.’ At the 1985 Tour de France, LeMond was the first rider to sport Oakley eyeshades, and a year later he became the first rider to win the Tour on a carbon-fibre bike. The big one for me, though, was using watts. Then in 1984 I started using a heart-rate monitor to track my performance.
‘I was one of the first to use a cycling computer for racing. ‘I’ve always been into bike design and technology, so I love this kind of thing,’ he reveals.
LeMond is particularly happy today because the Excel centre in London’s Docklands is a riot of gleaming bikes and electronic gadgets. Clear in conscience and unfettered by shame, regret or bitterness – despite multiple provocations – LeMond is back in love with cycling again, designing bikes, commentating on races and riding just for fun. Aged 53, the American is more robust than during his racing days, and his once iconic blond locks now have a sophisticated silver sheen, but his blue eyes and natural charisma make LeMond unmistakable, turning visiting cycling fans’ heads and sparking frantic camera-phone grabbing.Īccompanied by his wife Kathy and chatting with fans, LeMond is at ease with himself in the cycling world in a way that many riders of his era can never be. When LeMond strolls over to the Cyclist stand at the London Bike Show for our interview, he greets us with a relaxed Californian grin and a big bear’s paw of a handshake. As an anti-doping campaigner, he became embroiled in a vitriolic battle with Lance Armstrong and the American bike manufacturer Trek, which poisoned his love of cycling, tainted his reputation and threatened his financial security until he was very publicly exonerated. He pioneered the use of many technologies – from carbon frames to aero bars – now ubiquitous among cyclists. But cycling glory constitutes only half of his tale.Īpproaching his athletic prime in 1987, LeMond was accidentally shot while on a turkey shoot, losing 65% of his blood volume and coming within 20 minutes of bleeding to death, before staging an incredible return to the top two years later. His success was so monumental he was invited to the White House by US president Ronald Reagan and was the first cyclist to grace the cover of iconic US magazine Sports Illustrated.
GREG LEMOND TEAM Z TRIAL
The American cyclist won three eventful Tours de France, triumphing in a bitter duel with his team-mate and nemesis Bernard Hinault in 1986 to become the first non-European Tour champion, and clinching a tense final-day time trial in 1989 to beat Laurent Fignon to the yellow jersey by just eight seconds – the narrowest margin of victory in Tour history – before storming to his third title in 1990.Īrmed with an almost superhuman VO2 max of 92.5ml/kg/min (one of the highest rankings of aerobic fitness ever recorded in any sport, and almost triple that of an ordinary healthy male) and capable of sustaining 460 watts, LeMond also powered to two UCI Road World Championship titles in 19.
For a man who enjoys a tranquil life filled with fishing trips, hikes and hearty plates of Mexican food, Greg LeMond has had an extraordinarily dramatic career.
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