How GOOD Was Greg LeMond REALLY?

hello everyone you are watching the cycling day greg lamont is the most decorated american cyclist in history famed for his incredible last stage win of the 1989 tour de france and his epic rivalry with teammate bernardino plus his incredible vo2 max score of 90. but just how good was greg lemond really the story begins in lakewood california in 1961 when gregory james lamonde was born unsurprisingly le monde enjoyed a childhood with lots of activities such as hiking hunting skiing and even fly fishing unfortunately the young greg lemond appeared to have a classic case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but lemond used the bike to conquer the symptoms of adhd lemon said himself that it's one of the traits it's their inability to sit down to something you are not really interested in and absorb it if they're really interested in it people with add excel in really good ways when i got into cycling i would say the sport itself took a fog off my brain i was able to absorb the stuff i read it changed my life in 1977 15 year old greg lemon finished second in the tour de franco to the then best rider in the us john howard this remarkable performance by le mans attracted the us cycling federation's national team subsequently this meant that le monde went on to represent the usa at the 1978 junior world championships in washington dc le mans managed to finish ninth in the road race and the following year at the 1979 edition in argentina le monde not only improved over his previous result but also won the gold in the road race nonetheless despite being the reigning junior world champion in 1980 le monde had no success with finding a professional team instead he went to be part of the uf's national cycling team for a european racing campaign le monde impressed as he finished third role at the centroid ardennes before winning the 1980s circuit de la satan stage race and in the process greg lemon became the first american winner plus the youngest rider in its history to win the stage rate at the time the victory certainly did elevate his profile in europe and this attention was captured by sabriel yuman the renault el guitar director sportive yamada was impressed with lemon and said you have the fire to be a great champion before he subsequently offered the young le mans a professional contract for 1981 with renault it was already evident that limon was an extraordinarily talented rider and it didn't take much time for him to establish himself within the peloton his very first pro win came just three months into his neopro season when he won a stage of the tour de louise this momentum carried on and the young le man went on to win the course classic in the usa his first significant step in his neopro season was at the dofine libre where lemon managed to finish fourth overall impressively and this was incredible considering that he was riding in the services of his then team leader bernard enough le monde after the race was upgraded to third overall as pascal simone received the 10 minute penalty when it was discovered he had been doping this result really was stunning for le monde and in his own words showed him that he had the kind of climbing ability you need to win top european stage races so certainly a sign of more to come his second year as a pro didn't come off to a great start as le monde broke his collarbone while racing liege boston lies consequently the injury forced lemon to a reduced racing program that year and subsequently his main target became the world championships at the end of the year in goodwood england at the worlds there was a bit of controversy as le monde broke for the line towards the finish but was ultimately outsprinted by the italian giuseppe cerrone however following the race le mans american teammate jacques boyer accused le monde of chasing him down in the finale 800 meters before the finish cerrone was very strong at the end of the race and flew past boyer and lemon winning the race by five seconds over le monde and another five seconds down to third place sean kelly boyer placed ultimately 10th at the end but the race situation that caused this to happen was that the eventual bronze medalist sean kelly was with cerrone when he caught lamont with about 200 meters to go but he could not hold his wheel kelly did actually say after the race i don't think that boyle was fading he got quite a good gap nobody wanted to go after him and yes lemon chased down boyer boya was the only man up the road so quite detrimental lemon didn't apologize for the situation despite not winning the top prize le monde had already made history in this result by becoming the first american pro to win a medal at the world since frank kramer took silver in 1912. le mans later echoed his achievement by saying to me that second place was almost as good as winning especially at my age and this really just showed the winning mentality of le monde this success was followed by le mans winning the overall at the tour de la vanier by a record 10 minutes and 18 seconds this impressive margin reiterated his powerful potential as a rider in 1983 greg lamont wanted to rectify the wrong of 1982. lemon came into the 1983 world championship as one of the favorites even though he had no real team to back him up lemon put in some huge training miles prior to the worlds to prepare himself for the course that was 270 kilometers long made out of 18 laps of a hilly 15 kilometer circuit and in the second part there was a almost three kilometer long climb past wartenstein to the highest point of the course which was 600 feet above the lakeside start finish that was in turn followed by a 4.5 kilometer descent with a couple of 18 gradients before reaching the last 2.3 kilometer flat section in the race lemon made the pivotal move on the final lap and in his own words greg lamont said all i remember is just feeling good and holding it to the last lap i didn't want it to come down to a sprint the mind was alongside ruperez who was very strong and lemon said just before the summit i put in a little pressure on the pedals and rupert's came off only a meter or so but i didn't want to attack him then i knew i'd attack him not really attack but just increase the tempo on the first climb of the last lap it worked and thus le mans solo to the finish and this meant lemon became the first american winner of the road race at the professional level the 1984 season started well for le monde as he finished fifth at toreno adriatico 15th in flanders ninth in gen weber game and third overall at liege bastogne liege lamont continued with more success by finishing third overall at the dopani also winning stage 7b not surprisingly being the world champion he rode his first tour de france that year only his second grand tour in his career after the world test planning in 1983 but the young le mans managed to finish third overall whilst riding in the support of team leader lauren finger and further to this he also won the white jersey this performance didn't go unnoticed as the following year he switched to lavicler to ride in support of superstar bernardino who had regained form and was determined to win fifth tour de france team owner bernard tepe decided to sign le mans with a one million dollar contract over three seasons and he was definitely seeing potential successor to you know in 1985 with his new team le mans impressed with second overall at the tour of the basque country fourth at parabay and third overall at the gyro d'italia with bernardino winning showing the rest of the pelton what was to come from this phenomenal duo at the tour of france that year inor stamped his authority on the race as he led through the early mountain stages but suffered a crash and came into some difficulty the injured and all was vulnerable at this time and his rivals definitely sensed it the first threat foreign was on stage 17 which consisted of three significant climbs in the pyrenees and the second climb on the day the colder torment was where the crucial move by steven roach occurred and it was marked very quickly by the strong le monde but he was ordered not to work with roach and just to sit on the wheel as inor was losing time because of this move the pace of roach eventually slowed with the lamont anchor and other riders came out to join the two men enough recovered though he did miss the move of the lead group and at the finish line the young greg lamont was frustrated as the team had misled le monde with the race situation and how far back in or was in all went on to win the 1985 tour with le mans finishing second one minute and 42 seconds behind le monde had written as the loyal lieutenant and his support enabled enough to win his fifth tour de france inaudible said later he wanted to reward le mans for helping him achieve this fifth victory by helping greg lemon to win his first tour de france but many speculated was this true or was it just a nice sentiment at the time the future would definitely tell lemon wanted to defend his world championship title and this time with the strongest team the united states had ever fielded the support team around lemon included boyer as well as andrew hampstead ron keifel bob roll and eric hayden throughout the race le monde answered repeated attacks but by the final lap of the race he was beginning to tire he was part of the crucial move inside the final kilometer the last rider to launch an attack was former tor and welter champion yup sudamel being 38 years old and long past his prime none of the remaining contenders were threatened by this attack by the dutchman sudamel opened a sizable gap before long it was more than 100 meters and still growing attempts were made to close the gap but the group didn't work well together a fatigue lemon had nothing left to chase down this final attack and of course he did want something in the tank for an eventual sprint at the finish so with all this happening against all odds sudo milk beat the favorites to the line by three seconds and le monde having something left in the tank outsprinted morena argentine to take the silver ultimately the following year at the tour of france greg lemon had a great build up with a third place finish at paranese third at the crow team international fourth at the gyroscope and third at the tour swiss so le monde was selected as co-leader this time of the lobby claire team alongside defending champion eno the big question was if bernardo was really going to keep his promise or would the allure of the unprecedented sex title be too much for the badger to handle the unspoken condition of his promise at the time hinged on le monde demonstrating that he was the better writer inor chose to let the individual time trial on stage nine into not be the decider for which rider would receive the full support of the lovely claire team inno went on to win the first time trial finishing 44 seconds in front of le mans le monde unfortunately had terrible luck throughout the stage suffering a puncture as well as a mechanical on stage 12 the first mountain stage of the race in the pyrenees in all attacked the lead group and built up an overall lead and this meant that inor had a five-minute lead over le monde and other top riders in all claimed he was trying to draw out le mans rivals but this was contrary to what was the plan with le monde in all was not riding as a teammate lamont thought as le monde was never placed in any difficulty by any rivals except for the badger himself on the following stage inor broke away again early but was caught and then dropped by lemon on the final climb of stage 13 subsequently le mans pulled back four and a half minutes on eno at the finish the tour then headed to the alps and surprisingly simulman managed to drop in all from the leading group on stage 17 and the end of the day saw le mans pulling on the yellow jersey for the first time in his career another historic moment for the american as it was the first time it had ever been worn by a rider from the united states the determined in all attacked again early on the first climb the next day but was pulled back he even tried to escape on a descent but he could not distance himself from the yellow jersey as they ascended the next climb you know and le monde continued to pull away from the field and the dynamic duo maintained the gap to the chasers as they hit the bottom of the final climb the majestic and mythical climb the albues the pair pressed through the crowd ascending the 21 switchbacks of abdues and reached the summit together lemon put an arm around you know smiled at him and the stage was won in a show of unison producing one of the most iconic moments on the mountain and the tour de france it seemed like the battle was over but that was not the case the strong-minded eno attacked once again on stage 19 and the badger had to be brought back by his own teammates andrew hampstead and steve bauer and in doing so eno had broken the unwritten rule of attacking the yellow jersey when it is within your own team lemond had to keep his eye on the bachelor throughout the race in all road aggressively and repeatedly attack creating division and tension within la claire limon would however keep the yellow jersey all the way to the end of the race thereby winning the tour de france becoming the first american to do so still le mans ultimately felt betrayed by ino and the lavi clare leadership le monde later stated that the 1986 tour was the most complex and stressful race of his career for the 1987 season le mans had planned to defend his title at the tour with laviclea but he could not participate and the reason for this was one of the most unusual incidents in the sport early in the season during torreno adriatico le monde crashed and this fractured his left wrist to recover from the injury le mans returned to the u.s the week before returning back to europe he went turkey hunting on a ranch co-owned by his father in california le monde was with his uncle and brother-in-law the trio had separated when the brother-in-law heard a movement behind him and being in his hunting mode he thought it was a turkey and the eager man turned and fired through a bush devastatingly the movement was not a turkey but rather greg lemond who was hit in the back and right side with around 60 pellets the injuries sustained were life-threatening and le monde was transported via police helicopter to a medical center at the university of california davis le monde was taken for emergency surgery and reports said that le monde was within 20 minutes of bleeding to death and the operation saved his life this turmoil effectively ended his 1987 season prematurely and in october he announced he would return to serious competition the following february with his new team pdm and shockingly still with 35 shotgun pellets in his body at the time his own eagerness for the comeback was hampered by over training which resulted in tentinitis in his right chin requiring further surgery thereby the most decorated american cyclist ultimately missed another tour of france than 1988 and this lends to tensions in the relationship between le monde and the pdm team and even more so when lemon discovered that there had been doping occurring within the team consequently le mans decided to move away from pdm despite being one of the strongest team at the time and instead opted to head to adr after struggling in the 1989 paris nice early season and failing to improve his condition le monde informed his wife that he intended to retire from professional cycling after the 1989 tour de france le monde did however show some peaks of film within sixth place of role at trainer adriatico le monde began the 1989 jared's highest preparation for the total france but ultimately struggled in the mount and was not in contention at all for the tour of france that year le monde was not considered as a contender and le mans himself was part of these doubters le mans surprised everyone with a strong ride in the opening 7.8 kilometer prologue finishing fourth le mans surprised even more by winning the time trial on stage five which was incredibly long at 73 kilometers and he even managed to gain the yellow jersey for the first time in three years as a result le mans remained at the front of the race but lost the lead to his former teammate and rival lauren fionn on stage 10. le man however was not down and out as the american reclaimed the yellow jersey in the alps after another time trial but this time a 39 kilometer mountain time trial in stage 15. this incredible ding dong battle between finon and lemon continued and produced one of the most epic showdowns when vignon attacked on the upper slopes of abdues and ultimately le monde was not able to go with the frenchman sending the jersey back on the shoulders of vignon finion held a 50-second advantage over lamont going into the final stage on the champs-elysees which was a 24.5 kilometer time trial and this meant that le mans would have to take more than two seconds per kilometer lauren vignon one of the greatest cyclists on the planet had already won the tour fans twice in 1983 and 1984 so he was very confident for a third before the stage it seemed unthinkable that le mans would take 50 seconds of vigneon over the short course but the crucial factor in hindsight was that lemon had done a lot of wind tunnel testing in the offseason and perfected his riding position furthermore he rode the time trial with a rear disc wheel a cut down giro aero helmet and the same scott clip-on error bars that he had had to win stage five theon did use a pair of disc wheels but chose to go helmet-less and did not use the aero bars that definitely did cost him the tour de france le mans road flat out and finished at a record pace to beat vigneon by 59 seconds and thus claimed the yellow jokes by only eight seconds thereby his second tour de france title and as a result lemon embraced his wife and rejoiced on the champions league fion can lapse on the tarmac shocked and devastated over the loss lemon said that his 1989 tour of france was so much more satisfied than his 1986 the final margin eight seconds is still the closest in the tour de france's history and one of the most epic finishes to a tour as well lemon continued his epic comeback as he returned to the world championship since jonberry after hartford race lemon konnichev and kelly were the strongest rider when it came down to the final sprint but ultimately le mans was strongest and went on to become the world champion for the second time in his career after the race le mans said that he did not feel well and even consider it abandoning the race at some points with two laps to go he did however begin to feel stronger and with one kilometer to go lemon said i knew i could do it le monde was only the fifth person in history to win the tour de france and the world championships in the same year the following season for his build up for the 1990s tour de france was underwhelming with no huge results other than a 10th place overall at the tour de swiss as a defending champion and pre-race favorite with a strong team behind him the squad's tactical plan was upset on the first day when a breakaway that included one of his teammates went up the road with no significant favorites and this group finished 10 minutes ahead of the peloton le mans was thereby prevented for challenging for the lead ultimately as the yellow jersey was on the shoulders of his teammate surprisingly his teammate held the lead through the mountains including the abdullah stage but ultimately the jersey was lost to the then unknown claudio cappucci le monde was up with the favorites and managed to launch a late attack on stage 16 which was devastating that no one could answer miguel enduran was the only rider able to get on the wheel of le mans subsequently but it was le monde dictating the pace of the climb while indorain stayed on le mans wheel he was not a threat for the victory but his performance put the cycling world on notice near the end of the stage le mans sat up and gifted the spaniard the stage win but the destruction of le mans competitors was complete as there was now only five seconds between le mans on the coveted yellow jersey once again le mans finally overtook capuchi on the final time trial on stage 20 where he finished over two minutes ahead of the italian le monde at last had the yellow jersey and managed to wear it on the following day as the victor into paris thereby lamont was the overall winner of the 1990 tour of france and also didn't actually take any stage wins doing so but he is the last rider to win the tour of france while wearing the rainbow jersey for the world championships that year lemon attempted to defend his title but ultimately finished fourth eight seconds behind the winner his former teammate rudy denance of belgium for the 1991 season le monde was the defending champion he had trained well and had a solid team behind him and lemond was amongst the strongest riders into stage eight and he finished second to miguel indorian le man felt he was riding extremely well and his effort managed to propel him into the yellow jersey losing only eight seconds to indorain which did shake his confidence he held the yellow jersey until stage 12 at challenging 192 km to mountain stage le mans had trouble on the first climb and cracked on the cool determine losing significant time to claudia cappucci and the adventure winner miguel indorain lemon continued to race but was unable to challenge for the win and finished seventh overall 1992 was the beginning of the end for lemon despite winning the tour dupont and this was the last major victory in his career plus le mans managed to finish inside the top 10 at para bay but for the tour things had not been the same he started strongly and finished in fourth after a breakaway in stage six that put him fifth a rule however le mans lost form and lost more than 45 minutes on this stage to sestreye before abandoning the race the next day when his former domestique andrew hampstead won on top of outdoors lemon did extensive endurance training on the road the following winter but his performances the next spring failed to improve le mans had to abandon the 1993 durotalia two days before the final stage after brutal racing left him 125th on gc and he didn't recover enough for the tour the following year le mans began the 1984 tour de france but found that he could not race effectively he had to abandon after the first week before the race had reached the difficult mountain stages that december he announced his retirement but this leaves us with our initial question just how good was greg lemon winning three tour de france's two world championships but never really cracking the cycling monuments despite podium finishes in four out of the five monuments throughout his career including a fourth in paris roubaix third in liech bastille and second in milan san remo as well as the giro di lombardia not bad for a man who was shot by a shotgun greg lemon is definitely one of the greatest riders and still stands as the only american rider to win the tour de france in the history books and then to do it three times i think is absolutely impressive so that's basically it for this video about greg lamont make sure to comment down below what you think of the living legend and i wish him all the best with his battle with leukemia absolutely an icon of the sport and i can't wait to hear what you think so subscribe to the channel for more videos like this and of course as always have a nice day [Music] you

Channel: thecyclingdane

Views: 185,080

Keywords: greg lemond, greg lemond tour de france, greg lemond tour de france 1989, greg lemond documentary, greg lemond lance armstrong, greg lemond doping, greg lemond vs laurent fignon, greg lemond hinault, greg lemond vs hinault, greg lemond 1989 tour de france time trial, greg lemond bernard hinault alpe d'huez, greg lemond world champion, greg lemond leukemia, greg lemond tour de france 1986, greg lemond shot, 1989 Tour de france, greg lemond bike, greg lemond tour de france wins

Id: bzxLSGMxW2w

Length: 25min 21sec (1521 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 10 2022