Greg LeMond - The world according to Greg | Rouleur

I have insurance and so I don't need to focus on anything else other than just my physical well-being because a bike is completely replaceable and the fact that you have insurance in that you're protected in your cupboard all you need to is focus on yourself and getting yourself better like I'm gonna try and I'm gonna take risks and I'm going to take chances because why else why would you not write a malicious speak I'm 37 I'm a full-time lawyer but I'm also a cyclist for cycle team London don't know not here for me you're here for a man who I will give a very short adduction to probably the greatest American cyclist to ever race on the road I think it's fair to say he needs very little introduction beyond that so Greg LeMond thank you now Greg I know you've been talking on stage here through the classic the past couple of days I was thinking how do we make this difference and as I was doing a little bit of research I wanted to your Wikipedia page and noticed that the picture of you on Wikipedia is you at a race called the Tour de Trump I was there I know I know yeah I met him twice yeah I got a good story about that I met him twice 1989 in 2006 or 2007 a friend of mine he's a bike race and did the Tour de pon tour actually a couple races that would sort of Trump went to the to punt race he told me he's got a JAMA Crump was doing that he had a big press day last Trump Tower and my friend named started cooper's he talks a lot and I always say oh this is Greg LeMond him said I'm not going I don't want to go well come on just come down so don't you say tell anybody he wanted me to see Trump again I said don't you do that and my wife were standing towards the entrance at the door and the press raised the press conference was there and of course he had all these beautiful women and big big event and I'm just talking to my wife and he said I hear this ladies and gentlemen we have a world-famous American hero here and then somebody grabs me and they pull me up and oh my gosh how did he do what did what did my friend do it just as I'm walking out on stage he's like ladies and gentlemen we have Lance Armstrong here and I said no I'm not Lance arms I'm Greg heal it he was I never believed this could happen but he he was he blushed as he was embarrassed I couldn't believe it yeah I thought about it so yeah can't talk politics right now but I can Lee took a photo from that press deal and anyways I can't see them anyway I can't say that because it gets out it's very sensitive right now I can't imagine you look at this guy for he's gonna be the presidents of America one day ah everything's possible America that's the American dream I guess it is yeah I never believed that but let's stay with let's get back to the start I'm getting never mind like this thank you well yours box will leave the Donald there yes but if everything's possible in America did you grow up dreaming of winning the Tour de France I did I yeah I did I mean I I said how many people were here in last two days so maybe I can't remember what I talked about but yeah when I started cycling I didn't have a clue what the Tour de France was and I started cycling get in shape for skiing and one thing led to another grew up in the Sierra Nevadas and there was no snow that year and I was in a bike shop in Reno Nevada and somebody came up and said you know have you ever thought of race and I'm like no I mean that's actually the six months before I was going to my parents bought me yeah or gave me a five-day ski camp in Canada to learn to do flips and the day that we were leaving there was a bike race in front of our house and we all kind of irritated like what the hell is happening here but it was colorful and my sister's was bizarre my family's not into sports I mean they were we were active people but my parents were blue-collar people from LA moved to Lake Tahoe and we got into skiing but I said my dad's my favorite sports were bowling and trapshooting so but we got into downhill skiing and then in 1972 my mom's a fanatic she was a fanatic of the Olympics and over Corbett was the big star in America Tim Nastia my sister got in gymnastics she ended up winning actual national championships it was on the national team and this is a family that had no we didn't have any we didn't realize we had any athletic talent and just as I'm leaving to this to that ski camp I'm kind of jokingly I said well my sister's whole goal was the Olympics I said well maybe i'll make it in cycling and but that was a joke and never thought i'd get into it and i came back from that ski camp and i bought a bike used to call cut cut boards to make money and bought a bike in my dad bought winning we wrote for the next six months it was it was great but I was getting in shape for skiing so anyways this guy said you know have you ever thought of bike racing tonight no and he invited me to a Reno Willman meeting and then they talked about a club race two weeks later on the same course at the state championships were race that blocked us and I ended up getting second place out of 40 people and a couple guy was a dancer champion so they all said told my dad I think he's got talent so that's that's how he got in a psyche that I showed up my it was one bike in Reno Nevada yellow Ginelli and I bought a matching Jersey and turns out Mike's in from from specialized that he was distributing Chanel ways and that was it was him yep but no that was the bike he distribute it was sat on the shop floor for two years before I bought it my dad bought it Wow and Rick beuliss he would not sell us that bike he said it took us three or four days he said kid you're never gonna do a bike craze it's too hard anyways I showed it to my first bike race with the yellow jersey and yellow bike and a couple people looked at me one of whom guy who turned out to be really good friends with he looked at me with disgust and I named Kent Court he helped write my first book and he invited me to Europe two years later his dad lived in Geneva Switzerland and so they invited me over I spent two months we raced two days and two races in Switzerland which I went both to rays of France which I went both that came to Belgium which was the hotbed out of a trace I went six out of I got a second the other two then I went to Poland by myself and got third place overall and one of stage but during that trip I rode from Geneva with jean-claude Killy to the zoo plan and I saw the Tour de France and that was it but I also I was very I was really good in the US at that point I was winning all they would say amateur races would be like the national team riders and but at the time everybody said you know nobody can compete against the Mertzes they were these mythical gods and but I'd realized that it they all started off like me junior they have to put their pants on with one leg at a time and that's when I came back and I sat down and it's crazy to think about this 17 years old but I put four goals down yeah one was I was I was ninth place in the Junior World Championships and it had a bronze medal of the team's Hydra so the next goal is win the world champions when the Olympics then I was modeling my career like Mertz in that win the World Championships Pro by 22 and then Tour de France Biden I gave myself a year to because I'm American I'm ended by 25 so but I got them all you've mentioned Eddie once there and again when I was sort of looking up the relation between the two and I think actually in the in the latest issue of ruler this is mentioned in the interview that you did with with Andy the the editor of course you won the Tour three times you won the the world's twice in the Junior Worlds once but you never won a classic and he said well anyone can win the Tour de France as easy gotta be hard to win a classic eddy merckx said that about you well Addie Mertz didn't enjoy shotgun blast to his back and so I mean honestly I think that no people forget and I got really got old what people said just focus on the tour and they claimed that it was the one who modernized cyclamen and but what they don't they don't realize I raced every classic and when I got shot I really I mean I was a different person I mean I never came back to the same way and it is true the classics take a lot of years but Sheppard Duclair South who was my teammate ray Perry obey 14 years in a row till you want it so I mean I was second in Milan serums second Lombardy I had yeah I was always competitive in true Flanders I think I get six or seven but when you're an outsider I was also on the French team which was not the focus of the classics in the era if you're on a Dutch team of Belgian team a big advantage which of you from your pal Mara's would you trade a tour win for any of the classics not a tour win no Championships a world that's a very called a race win the world so I like to races I loved was turf Londres and peri-urban so when I went to belts I went to Belgium 78 9 I met a girl there and she ended up married to Dirk the wolf saves your wife before my wife your wife is here before my wife oh wow she's not listening long before now the funny story it is crazy I met her the year before and I was 16 17 I thought were the same age and she invited me back the next year and an embrace I'm there for six weeks in the irony is I want every race I entered the guy who was second was dr. wolf then I broke my broke my finger right here this was dislocated three times and everything so I'd you know America 21 to drink beer 18 if in Wisconsin 1617 you can drink beer so after every race I'd go into a bar and they'd get get me Pro feet can be congratulations buy me a beer and I'm like great that day I came in wolf bait me I was suck it and he came in and said Pro feet whatever congratulations I didn't win he said no to your engagement marriage to read a dozen Rita I said Rita we're not I'm not getting married I'm 17 going on 18 and I went back and I went back and told Rita so what's going on everybody thinks we're gonna get married and she started crying she said I love you I love you and then she broke down says I'm not really 16 I'm 14 I tell another so quickly I didn't do anything did anything that nothing illegal nothing but the irony is I met my wife I met her the year before three months later and I said I'm not getting ready to him 30 yeah that's my mind I'm never no way then I met my wife three months later I think six eight six months later we got engaged year and a half later were married crazy yeah oh yeah I've no notes for this kind of topic this is the inside of my but it was it was magical so I but I went to Belgium to race on cobblestone yeah that was my you know I race Prairie obey the first year when I was 19 and stayed there to about ten or forty caves and did the final attack before he no one so my final attack not the final race oh and we talked about how how you met your wife Kathy which I know is been a rock for you she you put down your racing success a lot of it down to her but what I do want to ask you about is your brother-in-law because you mentioned there you got shot people might not necessarily know that story but it was your brother-in-law who shot you my sister's husband your sister's husband my well not your wife's brother yeah your sister's husband shot you it was an accident yeah yeah tell us what happened well I was in 86 I won the Tour I came back I would rely kind of said this first I never know if I'm repeating this but don't worry about that they gotta hear it again anyway but you know after winning my first tour it was a big battle with you know and it was really I was not given really the credit you know gave me the tour and I was also you that's your goal from your seventeen you win it and just wasn't satisfying like I thought it would be in I was really stressed out it was an incredibly difficult Tour de France I mean you know racing against your own teammate and really breaks me by myself and anyways and I was not in great shape and I went back and I actually didn't really know if I want to race the next year and I said that's kind of I don't know it's hard to explain and then I went back to Europe and I'm like I love racing but I wasn't a great shape and I broke my hand being in in be dead zone and by kracie either in the front or very back and so I bought it crashed by staying in the top 15 the whole time but I broke my wrist came back to the US and I wasn't supposed to race about six months and April 21st I think it was you know you said traps shoot not really big hunter but I used to do some bird pheasant and and well honey but I got invited to my uncle's farm for opening turkey season and turkey hunting is notoriously dangerous because you get you dressed in camouflage and there's my first time Turkey honey but most importantly my first the first time my brother-in-law ever went on Dean and I think the first time I ever shot a gun and he forgot to bring his glasses it's not a good story here but we separated out and he went to the right Monica went to the left and the talk you know Turkey it kind of roost and go to they feed and go back yeah so you can figure out the pattern so the goal was to go sit in front of these berry bushes tuck into them and one over here went here I was a center and so I I sat down and just stood up to see where my everybody was in the moment I stood up I heard a gun blast and I thought my gun went off and I said I was put this up gross looking fingernail but that's the first thing I saw was blood here but I couldn't figure out it was it's kind of weird you watch a movie and a couple movies I can really tell they're accurate somebody's really been shot because you don't feel it but I went to say you know who shot and my right lung had collapsed and I was a gurgling blood and and so you just I mean it was kind of your stunt for you know he really know it's happening for a couple minutes I don't know how long it took but I realized I got shot and then my brother-in-law came down and he thought it was dead and he freaked out he I thought he's gonna shoot kill himself at the time and so I'm sitting here pretty much dying and I'm having to tell my uncle to take the gun away from him and kind of mediate this whole brother thing going on finally after about five minutes you know we got to call an ambulance and we waited there 10 15 minutes I remember but nobody showed up you know I finally had to tell my brother-in-law and uncle he calmed down they lifted me up and we went to a truck and drove up to the top of the property the gate was locked but he had everybody's sitting there like four fire trucks police men nobody went past the gate which was insane so let me dive below but anyways we got there and went into an ambulance and they kept asking for my name and address and if I was fading and if there wasn't by chance as a police helicopter that was investigating a car crash I think if somebody died but he was on the way back actually mad at me we lived out where I used to live in Sacramento and he decided just her about this shooting accident came back and happened to be there and there would have been an hour at least to get the hospital I was ten minutes man I haven't been down you I mean you must be thinking they're your life's almost over let alone your your cycling career but you did bounce back from that they had to leave some of the lead shot in you they couldn't get it all out right yeah it's just gonna cause it's a blood pizon problems you have led poisoning but you did come back and you did come back to win one of the greatest if not the greatest Tour de France exciting in all good tourists every tour is great I mean it's not me or anything but I think tours but it's really competitiveness to people really battling it that's always you mean I went in 1990 and keep approaching took a 10-minute lead on me and honestly it was the easiest tour I've ever won but but you and finial going right down to the white you don't see it anymore the last stage in Paris is a procession where as for you that year it was right down to the wire was a time trial you had to take I think yeah my 52nd yeah yeah I mean if that year I mean you imagine I was ready to quit the sport I mean I was in the Jura d'Italia I kind of I don't know after talking the last couple days I realized I wasn't such bad condition 86 at 1989 I just got six place in Trinidad you have to go but I signed with a team called ADR and I supposed to get paid money in the first of January not making money that much money right now after getting shot and never got paid and nobody's getting paid on the team and and I just remember racing just before the LEAs bested my agent and I said screw this I'm going back home and had a fun night out wasn't ready to race the face I was so pissed off but I went back and took about three weeks off kind of deciding again do I want to continue and because going from winning the Tour de France and 8016 literally I was laughed at from when I got back and you can see the directors kind of smiling honking laughing literally I heard was like oh I don't know explain it so that that went on for almost all the way through till I won the tour and but the Giro to tell you that year I first I came someone in there with almost a month off and sometimes I kind of forget all the all the details leading up to but the very stage I lost 8 minutes from Aetna but I also had I just I'm thinking all this retrospect but I had horrible allergies in the juror Talia I never could figure I was third in the jiron in 85 fourth and 86 I never felt a hundred percent there but two weeks after I could feel like um you know a Superman but it really was allergies grass allergies anyways halfway through the Giro that year I didn't reaching me liveried I lost 17 minutes and that was it I remember seeing Steven Roach take another how was I ever that good and I did break him psychologically and I was kind of like a letting a lot of steam off and there's a notorious story that everything's I took EPO because I I got I was a guy that never took an injection in race it never did and imagine I I did get shot I lost well over half three quarters of my blood volume and so I never did any kind of medical follow-up it's just kind of crazy and you know I was anemic my hemoglobin was down but had no iron stores and it was my masseur I call my masseur my friend from California Aldo Gibson drain spray ministry I'm not menstruating but he was right I had no iron and I but I always kind of think well that was the turning point it probably was but also I kind of released a lot of pent-up frustration kept my wife said you know don't quit now make it to the end of the year then if you've tried everything you can then then you can quit because it's interesting in those big years your career was dominated by the two dominant French talents of the ACS you know and finial but actually going into the 89th I think it was Petra Delgado who's the favorite favorite win it now the two of you dispatched him fairly quickly and then became mr. stark yeah it became became a dingdong match between the two of you what are your abiding memories or what emotions do you remember from that that three weeks as the two of you were sort of you never got less than 50 seconds for me but I was building up to that well that's why I get sidetracked but the Durotar yeah yeah so I started feeling better within four or five days of preaching elaborate and they had a couple of rest days in all the sudden last two three days I mean the first time and so long my legs started feeling really good and I decided the last time trial so he said the car was my coach and I said you know I got it I haven't tested myself really so we noticed a stage race like that once you're off you're kind of getting through it maybe you go for a stage went but it's never like you're racing for the win and so I decided I was in race as though I'm gone for the victory of the jerilyn I ended up getting second place and Kentucky won it rumor has it he was home onto a car seriously but I by minute in 21 seconds so going into the 89th or I know it looked really like I was so far down but I actually calculated I think the day before the Friday night there was a you know Saturday they came out with a like but what are my odds and nobody's there's one guy that gave maybe they thought I could win in me two people out of 20 but I actually calculated and I figured that the amount of time that I took out of them of Finney on without it without the error bars anything I probably could win it and with one one second one or two seconds that's kind of my psyche calculations plus I thought I was riding better but so I felt I felt like really confident could do it and I I do believe I won the Tour the day before because our coach cyrille guimard said you know race is never over to the finish line and fin Yan came up tapping on the shoulder said congratulations for your second I'm like you've lost it really need to be clever well yeah but he got too confident and I think in the first two kilometers it took ten seconds out of them so I knew he's gonna talk start off like I got this race won and he did actually did a very good time trial I beat him by seconds but he actually did a very good race well you rode the quickest song trial of all time up to that point didn't answer the door that's another I Armstrong said there's no way I could do with that EPO 8:54 but go there it's what is heinous it's no big no but vert cited charms leads a you can't ever compare times on a tight rope because it was fast but there's also a lot of downhill but it was fast funny thing about the Arab I think the I'm always a skeptic about aerodynamic claims and if you'll see my position I had a very good position that was hard but I think in the USA Today said my helmet I gained three seconds of kilometer with the bars I gained four seconds of climber I'm like holy I'd have to pedal so I did a Windtunnel tests I did a Windtunnel tests a year later and that the helmet caused 10 to 12 seconds crack and the bars only gave me 8 to 10 seconds break even so because you're if you're really aerodynamic the Bard's were if your opinion would have been I told pinion had you know remember G Mart all their dynamics that you see here the deep-dish wheels we had that 1982 everything that you see today was there except me except the Aero bars but he had him continue on had him and they decided he couldn't breathe so I said that's where he lost it while he was confidence of winning the day before was he a gentleman in defeat no I actually know he you know he was devastated I mean I tried to cheer him up on that the party my say you've got to I've got to next year we'll see you know it's a tie I don't know if anybody heard this but a journalist a friend of mine Philip Brunelle said that you good friends with Finland and I actually was good friends with him I liked him and from that point on he never went back to some sleazy and he for years but count thousand one thousand two thousand he's like I lost by eight seconds that's pretty tragic what do you think I mean I would have a hindsight ago I've got it I don't think it would devastate me that much maybe I should have give him the tour no but it was awkward because every time I went back to France you'd have these French people like I can't believe great it's so great then they'd look at him how could you lose by eight seconds so it was awkward for me but I think I mean what we're sort of a lion see on here Greg is you you are a natural fighter you'd like to take the fight to people even against the odds of something like you know and you're in the same team tries that's part of I mean when I started cycling I mean it was kind of I guess I like so many time I can't do it then I could prove you wrong it it is kind of weird some times.i it does motivate me and it's and it's part of I mean coming from America I mean it was always you know I said right away everybody said you know I had a big debate with the national coach he'll never make it you gotta stay till the Olympics too hard and I'm gonna screw you hmm I'd say that I but and that's I told this story yesterday with game art when I was third and pinion was first and I was I was on antibiotic for like three weeks or two weeks or two or three weeks and kemar Lobby Claire tapi made me this incredible offer three times what I was making and I went back to game art and I just said you know you know make a hundred grand they offered me three hundred almost 350,000 as for $50,000 uptick and he said nope you got a way to win you'll make money money three or four tours and and but he said that you'll never win I would never win the tour without him and that's still the deal I'm like goodbye that's it so there are so many more fights we could talk about that the legal fight with Dragonlance obviously that you know the argument with Eddy Merckx I'm gonna I want to park that for the time being we haven't got much longer to talk about what I really want to talk about is your sunglasses cuz no one wore them like you yeah Oakley that's a good story too because hopefully I was approached because but at that time I mean eighty-three the Tour de France was on TV and then 84 I got third place and Oakley at that time was a motocross goggle and they had grips and I heard they had gone from four million to two million dollars in cells and it's now Jim Jannard is no longer the owner I mean they sold it so they reinvented history but they never they never designed that it was this what I said about innovation it's never really coming from these big companies so these little inventors and and some guy that was out of Idaho had Oakley motocross goggles he took the lens put some arms on and a nose piece and so they came to me and I actually liked it was really for provided protection I think I think I rode like some var neighs and the tour and I mean there was no specific glass recycling and anyways I was offered tempers of the company pear no way look okay no we figured out we got I got 75 grants for 25 grand over three years I think that 10% was worth two hundred nine and six years later it's crazy way No so yeah but now Phil Anderson's here to in it was Phil was actually with me training when they first approached me and so I got him a contract we ended up giving glasses to riders and it really was they called me freaking 86 to her because I the Giro helmet that you see rather yes the Giro actually designed the first one but kind of Jim jetties he was dated my sister and came in 85 yeah my sister he was a bike racer and industrial designer but he had copied a by Tantra helmet from 85 84 and 85 that we had so I think 84 wasn't for no woman anyways it weighed 3-3 pounds and I said no way I'll never wear this and I bought a baby Bell helmet for my son Bell helmets were the big helmet hardshell helmet and but a baby Bell was the styrofoam there's a weight nothing and we drew on it with the pen a neat pen and just created hair net and that's so that would that came out that wasn't just January of 86 and they for much later had the helmet and board the Tour de France so that year I wrote Oakley and a Giro helmet hey that is from outer space yeah not us anymore I'm sure there's 20 people in the ring where exactly those brands still the final question then and look we talked about the fight we talked about the racing actually it seems that what has always got the juices flowing for you is the technical technological innovation and that's where your head is very much at at the moment with your own composites company yeah I mean I mean I saw him you know it's not there yet we're doing fundraising it's raising a lot of money to make carbon fiber so I'm praying I said can have you ever seen the show Silicon Valley and that's when I'm been living for three years it's very stressful with it so I've aged 15 years but yeah I was actually I mean after Trek I parted ways and really once I had this falling out with Armstrong right they never got me involved with design of the bikes it was put me on the side and and I we ended the relationship in 2008 but really 2010 and I was just sick of cycling just the whole politics but it really was that internal battle because I was I made one comment it wasn't - David Wallace he I said I don't have anything to gain by saying anything you know it's people are crazy about arms what I'm going to say and he said well great but you say he's clean Creighton's come back in history of support and I said absolutely and he said if he's not greatest fraud he put words in your mouth yeah a week later arm some calls me said why'd you call me a fraud I said I didn't I called you the grace come back in history sport so he literally admitted what he was doing anyways that bat became incredibly stressful but when I think three four years later I decided I really wanted to get back into it and because a lot product design and I had some really great ideas that I wanted to bring into the bikes and so but I figured I got to figure out how to control my supply chain which means not going agent for production and I started looking at how to innovate the manufacturing process for carbon-fiber bikes and in that kind of research I went to Oak Ridge National Laboratory which is where they invented that hydrogen bomb in World War two called the Manhattan Project and after World War two that became the leading world's material science laboratory and while I was on tour that I was there looking at the advanced manufacturing 3d printing that they just developed and did have a tour the campus and ran into a team that just invented a way to make carbon fiber at 50 percent the cost it doesn't sound like a big deal but the current prices of carbon fiber is it's it's you sets a little cut fiber on bikes so it's sporting goods or aerospace and aviation there's really not a lot of use of in cars so this application for this low-cost fibers you know maybe a hundred times bigger than what it is today so I and this cell lucky I mean luck and still it's an not easy but I ended up hiring the team and hired the team because I they were licensed the technology out knife went and said well how do i how can I get this license well you have to make fiber I didn't how to make it so I hired the team that did and six months later there was another recent research laboratory was what they call semi industrial production lines a lot of labs to make carbon fiber they're these tiny little toes and they go through and they're tiny little ovens this is a like a production 107 production facility which allows you to really take what's been developed the lab to commercialization and the only other place is Deakin University and we happen to call up the laboratory because the the line was down at Oak Ridge we wanted to run some tests and fiber and we had just announced their licensing agreement with Oak Ridge and and the lab there had just invented another breakthrough in sixty years to breakthroughs yeah they kind of bragging they said well weird we did something else we did the one process is a different process but this is they they had a technologist speeded up the oxidation of carbon fiber okay so and and when you make carbon fiber it's basically acrylic like a what you make sweaters out of it's got a good content of carbon in it and you make the string and then you bake it and you stretch it and that the lines of carbon fiber molecules and then you you kind of keep baking it and keep stretching it and then you go through two furnaces carbonization where you burn off everything that's what creates carbon fiber so they we now we go from 90 90 minutes to oxidation to 15 minutes we get four times the amount of output so I've got this company I have it's got the two most important breakthroughs in carbon fiber in in last 60 years but we've been so there's so few people that know about carbon fiber understand it yeah but difficult to raise money it's been big big challenge I'm still in the shower too to be honest but I've been able to leverage all these relationships within the carbon fiber industry to come up with some pretty cool stuff for bikes that's yeah so next year sometime actually we're gonna be coming out with bikes really looking forward to seeing those and I'll ride one if you give me 10% of company obviously life is non-stop for you Greg really busy ever since you started racing and I'm busy even so now in the u.s. so it's brilliant to have your time here at the ruler classic please show your appreciation for Greg LeMond thank you [Applause] coming up next we're gonna have Tom Stanton talk about building the British

Channel: Rouleur

Views: 32,396

Rating: 4.8057141 out of 5

Keywords: rouleur, cycling, road cycling, rouleur classic, rouleur classic 2019, greg lemond, rueluor

Id: k1frbWyRrZ4

Length: 33min 32sec (2012 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 29 2019