De Mondenard: "only one person"

Greg LeMond has been interviewed about the last Tour de France, and here is what he said:

Red flag' on Evans' rival
From correspondents in New York
July 27, 2007 THREE-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond said today that it was unfair to brand Michael Rasmussen a cheat without looking at those around him.

And he warned there was a "red flag" on the new man in the yellow jersey, Discovery Channel rider Alberto Contador from Spain, who stands between Cadel Evans and an historic Australian victory in Paris on Monday (AEST).

Indeed, LeMond believes there should be no champion this year.

In a dramatic few days on the crisis-hit race, long-time leader Rasmussen was sensationally turfed out by his Rabobank team.

France's No.1 team, Cofidis, pulled out after it was revealed that Italian rider Cristian Moreni had tested positive for testosterone, while Astana also quit following favourite Alexandre Vinokourov's dope test failure.

"If Rasmussen got caught, and if you want to be equal, you have to implicate other riders, too," LeMond said.

"You have a lot of riders against whom there's a lot of evidence and relations to certain doctors. Those riders are getting away with it.

"Alberto Contador and Rasmussen are at 60kgs each and both are climbing as fast as (Marco) Pantani did. That's a red flag right there," he said in a reference to the late Italian, a superb climber who won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia in 1998.

"Contador has been involved in Operation Puerto'" he added, citing the doping scandal that rocked Spain.

"I'm not pointing fingers at Contador. I'm just saying that if you point fingers at Rasmussen, you have to look at the riders next to him."

LeMond said he thought the Tour de France would be better served if it didn't name a champion this year.

"I would prefer to see a non-Tour de France winner," he said.

"It's more symbolic."

However, he said the opinions sprouting around Europe, that the latest scandals will spell the end of the Tour, are wrong, although he does believe the reputation of cycling as a competitive sport is in jeopardy.

"The Tour will survive," LeMond said.

"The Tour is an event. It has a glorious past. It has a history. The Tour will never go away. During three weeks, riders become actors. Actors with a story to tell. If you remove those actors, and replace them, you'll still have the drama and the flavor the Tour brings.

"What I'm pessimistic about is the credibility of cycling as a whole.

"Each time we thought things are looking better, then we take a dive."

LeMond said the positive tests revealed only the tip of the iceberg, that drug cheats still abounded in the peloton, and riders were under pressure to keep quiet about it.

"There's a strong omerta," he said. "But it's changing."

The doping control system needs to improve to hasten progress, he said.

"There's too many loopholes," said LeMond.

"For instance, none of the riders are tested before the start of the race. The only tests occur early in the morning, which means they can pretty much do anything they want before the start.

He called for a body independent of Tour officials and the International Cycling Union to take over, with funding by the government and more punitive measures for those caught cheating.

Agence France-Presse

Almost the same thing, in French:

27 juillet 2007
Greg LeMond: "Pas surpris"

Triple vainqueur du Tour de France, Greg LeMond n'est pas étonné de voir la Grande Boucle à nouveau touchée par des scandales de dopage. L'Américain fait part de ses doutes quant au nouveau porteur du maillot jaune, Alberto Contador.

-> Etes-vous surpris par les affaires qui ont éclaté sur le Tour de France ?

- Pas vraiment. Quand vous regardez la vitesse à laquelle certains coureurs grimpent les cols, ils vont aussi vite qu'à l'époque de Pantani. Ce qui me choque, c'est la relation que peuvent encore entretenir certains avec le Docteur Ferrari. Ils pensent qu'ils ne peuvent y arriver sans lui.


-> L'équipe Rabobank a-t-elle bien fait de renvoyer Michael Rasmussen du Tour alors qu'il n'a pas été contrôlé positif ?

- Si on a puni Rasmussen, alors il faut impliquer d'autres coureurs contre lesquels les preuves sont bien plus grandes. Ce n'est pas normal que ces coureurs puissent s'en sortir. Quand je pense que Floyd Landis (contrôlé positif lors de sa victoire en 2006) s'est défendu en clamant que les échantillons testés par le laboratoire français étaient manipulés, que les Français étaient contre lui et qu'il n'y avait pas de culture de dopage en cyclisme... Soit Floyd est un grand naïf, soit il est vraiment de mauvaise foi.


-> Pour vous, il y a donc encore des coureurs dopés dans le peloton?

- C'est évident. Les coureurs savent bien qui est dopé et qui ne l'est pas. Prenez Contador par exemple (ndlr: Alberto Contador, le nouveau leader). Rasmussen et lui ont le même gabarit. Ils pèsent aux alentours de 60 kilos et tous les deux grimpent aussi vite que Pantani en son temps. C'est déjà suffisant pour lever le drapeau rouge. En plus, son nom a été associé à l'affaire Puerto. Je ne pointe pas Contador du doigt. Mais je dis juste que si on a attrapé Rasmussen, alors il faut regarder de plus près ce que font ses concurrents.


-> Pourquoi les coureurs continuent-ils à se doper s'ils savent que tôt ou tard ils vont se "faire coffrer"?

- Si vous regardez de plus près, très peu de coureurs se font attraper. Il y a trop de mailles dans le filet. Et il en sera ainsi tant que nous ne modifions pas les méthodes de contrôle. Par exemple, aucun des coureurs n'est contrôlé avant le départ de la course. Les seuls contrôles se déroulent tôt le matin. Ce qui veut dire qu'ils peuvent faire à peu près ce qu'ils veulent avant le départ. L'UCI et les organisateurs du Tour font du bon boulot. Mais pour obtenir des résultats durables et éradiquer le dopage, il faudrait créer une structure indépendante, dans le même genre que l'AMA mais que pour le cyclisme. Cette entité serait financée par les gouvernements et aurait un pouvoir punitif. Je ne vois que cette solution pour aboutir à davantage de transparence.


-> Devrait-il avoir un vainqueur dimanche sur les Champs-Elysées?

- Non. J'aurais préféré que les organisateurs n'octroient pas de maillot jaune. Cela aurait été un geste symbolique.


-> Le Tour de France a-t-il sérieusement perdu de sa crédibilité selon vous?

- Je ne m'en fais pas pour le Tour. Il survivra. Le Tour, c'est d'abord un événement avec une histoire, un passé glorieux. Durant trois semaines, les coureurs deviennent des acteurs. Si vous retirez ces acteurs et vous les remplacez par d'autres, le Tour gardera toujours de sa saveur. Là, où je suis assez pessimiste, c'est pour l'image du cyclisme qui a pris un sérieux coup. Chaque fois qu'on se dit : ça va aller un peu mieux, on replonge."

Of course you can read reactions about that on the net, many people, as usual, just wishing Greg didn't speak out, and wondering why he should be listened to.

One of the reasons he should be listened to is that he was one of the first to speak out against doping, and has been right so far in all his 'allegations'... Had he been listened to earlier, maybe cycling wouldn't be in the situation it is now. Like it or not, he has been a messenger all along. Many people would like to be able to prove he doped, in order to make him a non-legitimate messenger. Fact is, Greg is one of the least suspicious riders of the Tour de France history. I'm not saying that just as a blinded fan. I'm not the only one saying that.

Dr. De Mondenard, a physician who's been very outspoken against doping, so outspoken that he often comes off as vindictive, said on July 26th on the german channel ARD:

'I have set up more than 4000 dossiers about professional participating in The Tour De France since 1947. All of them connected in some way to doping. There is only one person I have found nothing. It's Greg LeMond'.

This interview can be watched here.

Believing that Greg LeMond was clean can be seen as only a belief. I guess it will never be proven for sure. But the absence of any suspicions about him is a fact. With speaking out, he's been ready to put himself in a position where his past as a clean rider has be questioned, and precisely and exhaustively checked. What came out of it? Zero suspicion.That's a fact.

Vélo Club again... and Greg on Le Tour

I put a little video of Greg appearing on Le Vélo Club here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuA_3cQ31r4

Also in the 'news', but a bit late: Greg talked about the end of the Tour 2007 with PezCycling:
Greg LeMond on le Tour: The Finale Begins.

Photos de l'Etape du Tour

The site Velovelo has a few pictures of Greg LeMond and Geoffrey at L'Etape du Tour. I'm putting them here (click to enlarge)

Geoffrey managed to find cycling socks Ac/Dc! And he's wearing the jersey Chicago Northwestern University (wildcats). I wonder what Greg's jersey belongs to. Any idea?

Again, I'm sorry to have to report some more Landis' bashing. It's basically just the same as the NPR interview I talked about before , now reported in Times Online. Don't hesitate to express yourself about that, there, here and elsewhere. It seems that a few Landis' supporters already have jumped on the "LeMond is a pathological liar" bandwagon. Funny how some people have to wait for their idol stating something against Greg to immediately have the same opinion. That reminds me of Armstrong's "LeMond is bitter"... I'm afraid we will now have to deal with the "liar" characterization for a bit... Same old same old.

Last, but not least, thank you to the people who suggested to share things about Greg and/or help with the blog. You can email me at (Sorry.. I have to make a little riddle here, I don't want spams... ;-) )
"lemondXX at gmail dot com" where XX are the two last numbers of Greg's birth year. Should be easy...

Au Vélo Club

First, before talking about Greg LeMond's appearance on the "Vélo Club" after the Tour stage finishing in Briançon yesterday, a little point about Floyd Landis... I wasn't sure I wanted to mention that at all. But well, his attacks on Greg are becoming sickening. And I think with the last interview he did on NPR, he crossed a new line. I mentioned here that Landis already qualified the call that his manager made to Greg as a "bad joke". He now insists, and goes farther... characterizing Greg as "clearly insane" and borderline insinuating that Greg could have made up the childhood abuse and/or that he should be over it now. Highlight of this trash:

Landis: "Look, if that happened to Greg Lemond, that's a terrible thing. But he's 50 years old now, and he has a problem with lying, and he never should have been there."

"Trust but Verify" (a blog dedicated to Landis doping allegations) reports this interview and recaps the part about Greg. Go read it there for the full thing.



Hard to make a transition... Anyway, Greg was on the set of the talk show Le Vélo Club that takes place after each stage of the Tour de France, along with his two sons Geoffrey and Scott (who just sat in the back...).

He looked smiling and tanned and in very good shape. I should be able to put a little clip on my youtube account soon. Greg seems to have lost quite a bit of his French. He mentioned briefly that it was nice to see that cycling was so popular in France still while in US it turns a lot about doping recently, and that he believes that the Tour de France is a very special event whose popularity will never fade.

He was sitting close to Laurent Fignon, and they were shown footage of Greg's victory on the Tour 1989. Greg looked a bit embarrassed and then he mentioned that in his mind Fignon also won that Tour, and that he could have won it if he had also used the Triathlon bar. To which Fignon answered that it was nice of Greg to say so, but that they fought fairly, and that the result was good as it was, otherwise they wouldn't be there still talking about it.

Greg talked about 'L'étape du Tour' that he rode last Monday, and a bit of it was shown, showing Greg and his son posing on the starting line. He said that his son was in the 30 first, but didn't manage to get a proper "ravitaillement". He also said that he had made a bet of 10 euros with a friend for who would finish first, and really pushed himself to arrive before that friend and finished more tired than on any stage of the Tour during his career.

Here are some screencaps of this show. Geoffrey (black shirt V neck) and Scott (green shirt) are sitting behind Greg. The last cap shows Greg and Geoffrey posing with Bruno Cornillet (one of Greg's former teammates on Z and GAN).

Click on it enlarge...

Interview in Vélo 101 - part 2

First of all, Greg finished l'Etape du Tour, in 8'44'' (701st out of about 7000). Congratulations!


The second part of the interview Greg and Geoffrey LeMond gave to Velo 101 is out.

They both have some quite harsh words about Armstrong.
(once again, this is my translation...far from perfect, my apologies...)



Geoffrey asked about what he thinks of Lance Armstrong:
[G. thinks for a long time] I'm not sure what to say. For 8 or 9 years, or even in 1993, I was close to Armstrong. He had had hard words against my father. I was a kid, he was criticizing my dad. I saw him again in 2000 in New York. And after that, my dad talked about his (Armstrong) relationship with Ferrari, and all went for the worst. He did a lot of things to discredit my dad. It was actions of a guilty guy, trying to justify himself. He made the life in my family a lot harder than it should have been. Therefore I'm mad at him. He is simply a liar and a cheat.


For you Greg?
I'm glad that Lance is out of cycling. As an American, I was sincerely happy to see him win the Tour, eventhough we didn't have the best of relationships. I went through a hard period during my career, when I had to fight for two years to come back, so when he won in 1999, I found that great. After that I heard about his relationship with Dr.Ferrari, and I had the dream that after the affair Festina, things were going to change, the peloton was going to ride slower, people were going to start speaking out. In 1999 I heard from a mecanician from the Festina Team what was still going on. For me, it's really hard to appreciate cycling when you don't know anymore who is the best. That's the problem of those past 15 years: who was the best? For me it was Jan Ulrich, who had more talent than the others. In 2000 I heard from mecanicians from the US Postal what was going on. After that it became hard to watch the Tour.

Geoffrey:
No suffering... There was no suffering. I climbed the Ventoux yesterday, which the pros are doing too...

Greg:
When in 2000 you see Armstrong talking in his earphone when he drops Pantani while climbing the Ventoux, it's not normal, it's nuts! I didn't want to criticize an american cyclist, I found that bad, but I couldn't accept that after Festina, Armstrong was seeing someone like Ferrari, for the image of the sport. It's the wrong message. If you want to carry the right message, to show you're against doping, you don't see Ferrari. I only stated that I was disappointed that he was seeing Ferrari. Five or six days later, he called me and instead of asking why I said that, he only told me that I couldn't have won the Tour de France without EPO. I said it wasn't true, but he insisted on 1989. I told him "in 1989, I didn't even know EPO, and if I had been the first to use it, I wouldn't have won by 8 seconds, but by 8 minutes." Because we know now that at the end of the Tour, the difference in power can be 20 to 30% more with EPO. I told him that for my first Tour, I finished 3rd, at 23, then second and then first. My results were regular, aside from the hunting accident.

After that for six years he did all he could to break my relation with Trek. He is a guy who abuses of the system, even with his cancer, for his image, for his money. In my opinion, he's been protected by Verbruggen. In 2000 I heard that he gave $500,000 to UCI. In 1999 his urine is tested positive 6 times. In 2000 it's clear as the one of a baby. I don't think Armstrong is a mean guy, neither that he is a bad or a good person. But his way of saying "I train better than the others, I'm more motivated". The other riders are training as hard, but they don't have the same possibilities.

If you consider cycling for the past 30 or 40 years, since Merckx's years and before. People were training for 30,000 km, a hundred days a year. In 1990 I win the Tour after having suffered mononucleosis all winter long. I couldn't end a race. In april I was in bed and rode hardly one hour a day. And I came back in May, and was going up and down during the Giro d'Italia, then I was a lot better at the Tour of Switzerland and around the Tour, I was competitive. I won because I had a good team, good tactics. The secret of good training is to know how to work and rest, finding how you can stay fresh to reach your maximum at certain times. If you overtrain, you can also lose your strength and your sensations.

The body has some genetic capacities that training cannot change. You can't climb the Alpe d'Huez 20 times and then pretend that you can win the Tour because you did that. If your VO2max is 80, watts are there or not. In 1991 you see an increase in power outputs of 10-15% and then it just climbed more after. I was a pro for 14 years. The first year I was 3rd on the Dauphine Libere. I don't think I was any stronger 10 years later. I just had more experience to know how to reach my highest level with good timing.

That's why I'm mad at doping. I saw my team Z win the team classification in the Tour 1990, and in 1991 we couldn't follow anymore. In the Giro we were all dead after two weeks and I quit. Even on the Tour de France my teammates lost 10 minutes in the first mountain stage. We know now that your hematocrit naturally decreases of around 10% on the Tour, while with EPO it can climb by 20%. In the end of the Tour it makes a difference. We couldn't fight against that.

I saw a lot of cyclists quit like me around 32 years old, thinking "I quit, I'm too old." We were trying to find out why the peloton was riding so fast. My way has always been to try to stay in front of the peloton, but then, I couldn't do that, and I thought it was my age.


What is your hope for cycling? Are you watching the Tour 2007?

Greg: Since 2006 and the scandals I hope that things are going to change. Even with all this, cycling remains exciting. I think the Tour will survive, but it needs a true solution against doping, with a way of testing or putting down the hematocrits back to 44-45%, or you can't start the stage. Between the moment where the doctors are testing for hematocrits in the morning and the beginning of the stage, transfusions are possible, so cyclists should be isolated over that time, no contact with the team or team doctors. They get coffee, drinks. Then you test them for their hematocrit, bovine hemoglobin and testosterone. Then we will know, there won't be the bias that the hematocrit drops over the stage. It's one solution. For the public, and for the riders, all will be more comfortable, they won't think anymore that you need to take something to be at the top. If they trust in that, well trained riders will be more competitive.

Geoffrey: Yes, I'm watching, because I love cycling. But the fact that some people can go win the Tour thanks to doping, it's absurd, it's ruining it and its image for a lot of people. With more scandals coming out, people are getting fed up, but it's a necessary step. Landis is getting through this okay, there's no verdict yet, and that's not logical. Riis admitted he doped in 1996. In 1997 scandals are about Ulrich. 1998, it's Pantani, who died because of doping and from 1999 till now, people want us to believe that Armstrong lived with no doping. Beat everyone without PED's then, it's impossible. In 2006 the Tour champion is convicted of doping, he denies it. Landis was positive to testosterone, there's a mistake, he took other things, not only testosterones but maybe also things that can't be detected.


What's your feeling about the Landis affair?

Greg: For Armstrong I say that I am disappointed that he is seeing Ferrari, he calls me and with telling me I couldn't win in 1989 without EPO, he admits himself that he took some. Honestly, I'm disappointed, with all I knew from the mecanicians from US Postal, I couldn't support Armstrong. He threatened me, I spent a lot of money for lawyers to be able to keep my bike company, he almost made my life a nightmare. He is a guy who has power and abuses it.

For Landis, I don't understand a thing. I sponsorized his team in 2001, I spent four hours with him in the bus after the Fleche Wallonne, I met him at the team presentation. When it was learnt that he tested positive, I was doing a charity ride and I told the press that I was wondering, that I was hoping. I met his family at the Tour of Georgia. Nice people, I couldn't see a link between those people and doping. But he left his family when he was 15. Then he called me and asked why I said so. I said "you're not only a cyclist, you're the winner of the Tour de France, tested twice positive to testosterone. After the Puerto affair, cycling is down on its knee, so if you did it, for your own good and for the sake of cycling, you're the one who should speak out, say you cheated. That's the method."

Cycling needs that people speak out. I am in favor of reducing punishements for those who speak out, who give the names of doctors and managers, who will have to go away. Even a 6 months suspension only, with accepting that each day his blood is checked. It will be sure he's riding clean.

Even Bjarn Riis, or Jérôme Chiotti, who was badly treated after admitting he doped, those guys have to be recognized, put fowards, because they have to be helped, kept in the sport, to be examples for young riders. Everybody makes mistakes. At 25 years old you are easy to influence and impresse so it's easy to make mistakes. The system has to change, not the riders. Pantani was controlled with a hematocrit of 53% and was treated as a criminal, got depressed, took cocain and destroyed his health.


Last question: the Tour had a great success in London. Do you think it would be possible to see a start in United States?

Geoffrey: I don't think so. The history of the Tour de France comes from stages like L'Alpe d'Huez, Le Tourmalet. Europe is better for cycling. Definitely...

Greg: Why not? it'd be fantastic. Felix Levitan thought about it. But you need two or three days of rest to get over the jet lag. All the riders should arrive from Europe to not be advantaged. But it's possible and it'd be fantastic

L'Etape du Tour: Greg LeMond dossard numéro 1

Greg and his son Geoffrey will ride l'Etape du Tour tomorrow July 16th, and Greg has been given the bib #1!
He said in the interview to Vélo 101 that he was just hoping to finish it... I have the feeling that he can do a bit better than that.

They also rode the "Maratona dles Dolomites" last July 1st, and finished the 138km and arrived together in 5h44. Greg finished 43rd over 1200 in his age category, and Geoffrey 40th over 348.


Here's a little pic of Geoffrey during that event.


And for people having access to french TV and le Vélo Club: Greg is planned to appear there on Tuesday, July 17th!

Greg sera invité du Vélo Club de Gérard Holtz le mardi 17 juillet.

"L'Express" interview from July, 12th, 2007

The French magazin L'Express of July 12th, 2007, has a quite long interview, with a few funny pictures, of Greg LeMond about doping. Nothing really new there: he's coming back on his relationship with Armstrong and the Landis affair... Here and there he is exposing a few things I didn't hear before, for instance about the atmosphere in the peloton and in his team around 1991-1993.

I translated the full thing, as best as I could (and I'm far from being a professional translator), trying to make it really close to the french version but still readable. I have my doubts about how the interview was actually conducted. It must have been done in english, so already one translation altered the original thing. Some parts sound a bit "artificial" in the french version.

People who already dislike Greg will for sure be shocked by his words. He has some quite harsh words about both Armstrong and Landis, but also about Vinokurov. And of course about Dr. Ferrari. I think his tone is even more straightforward than I ever heard before.


The article in french can be read here.
L'article en français peut être trouvé ici.

Greg LeMond

"Doped riders are like drug-addicts"




This man is a pioneer: the first American to win the Tour de France at a time (1986) when cycling was ignoring globalization. That year, Greg LeMond wins over his teammate Bernard Hinault, and the picture of the two champions crossing together, hand in hand, the finish line at l'Alpe d'Huez, was shown worldwide. LeMond won again the Tour in 1989 and 1990, before leaving a peloton where EPO was beginning its carnage. Today this wealthy 46-year-old businessman does not recognize anymore the sport that made him a king. The victories of his compatriots, Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, tarnished with allegations of doping, leave him with a bitter taste in his mouth. As far as the anti-doping war goes, "the revolution is still to accomplish" for him.



E: The Tour de France just started in an atmosphere of suspicion. What do you think about it?
GL: When you see that Alexander Vinokurov, one of the favorites, announce that he works with Dr Ferrari (italian doctor with a very suspicious reputation, allegedly at the origin of EPO in the peloton), it is unbelievable! Vinokurov talks about him as the best physical preparator in the world. But there is no secret. As far as training or diet go, revolutionary methods do not exist. This doctor is known only for one thing: doping. The UCI should say: "if you work with that man, you cannot compete in the Tour de France."



E: You won your third and last Tour in 1990. The following year, you finish 7th, far behind the spanish Miguel Indurain. Was EPO already spread in the peloton?

GL: Looking back to it, I think that everything changed that year. I was riding with the Z-Team, and maybe in all my career I never had such a level of fitness. A few days before the start, I did the same test as I always did before my preceeding victories: two and a half hours of riding behind a derny (motocycle shielding the cyclist from the wind while training) along a canal in Belgium. I was never over 80km/h before, and then, I rode at 85km/h, with a heart rate of 180 beats/minute! The first day, I finished 2nd of the prologue, I called my wife and said: "Get the Champagne ready! There's no competitors..." And it was true. The only dangerous guy, theoretically, was Chiappuci, a "domestique". During the first stage I broke away and took the yellow jersey. It got bad on the fifth day, around Reims. To avoid falls, I usually try to be in the first ten of the peloton. But here, I had a really hard time to stay in front. The guys were riding like motocycles! I called my wife: "Actually, maybe I'm not in so good shape."



E: You didn't understand what was going on?

No, I didn't. I did only later. Years later. When the first admissions came, the first deaths... During the Tour 1991, in the time-trial in Alencon, I thought I was winning by 5 minutes. I was flying! But Indurain beat me by 8 seconds. I thought then that it was my old problem of allergy that was impeding me. Later, in the stage Quimperle-Saint Herblain, the peloton rode at a record average speed close to 50km/h. I was close to Charly Mottet, an experimented cyclist, and we looked at each other about 30km from the finish and said: "Waw... what is going on?". Over all those years, we searched for explanations to our debacles in over-training and revolutionary methods. It was turning us crazy. I remember that during the Giro d'Italia, the coach of the Z-Team, Roger Legeay, decided that we needed to be put on a diet: no fat, no olive oil, no dessert. After two weeks, the whole team abandoned. We only had skin on our bones.



E: You never doped?

GL: No. And I didn't always understand what I was told. I am American, not french or belgian. For long I didn't get the subtilities of the language. When I was asked if I was "medically taken care of properly", I was answering that I wasn't sick. When asked if I was well "prepared", I was showing my training schedules books. It's probably in 1988, after my hunting accident, that I was the closest in touch to doping. I signed with the dutch team PDM and they had decided to try "things" on their riders. Their doctor was asserting that I needed to be physiologically "re-equilibrated" because I had lost a lot of blood the preceeding year. Luckily that year I hardly raced. On the other hand, Gert Jan Theunisse, one of the leaders of the team, was banned from the Tour de France after being tested positive to testosterone.



E: What was your state of mind when you left the peloton in 1994?

GL: It wasn't my world anymore. Roger Legeay, who was my coach for all those years, is telling that I had only one expression in my mouth at that time: "I am tired". One of my teammates had a discussion in 1993 with a spanish rider from the team Once. He came back like crazy and yelled at Legeay: "Here is what the others are taking, testosterone, EPO, growth hormones... So if you want us to get results, stop threatening us of cutting off our pay by two and hire a doctor!" The following year, Casado left for an italian team, Jolly Componibili. I met him on the roads of the Tour of Switzerland. He was laughing. He explained to me that two laboratory buses were following his team all the time and that he finished the Tour of Spain without any pain. He kindly teased me and went away. Three weeks later I decided to quit cycling. The next year, Philippe Casado died of a heart attack. He was 30.



E: Ten years after the end of your career, you took firm positions against doping, and put yourself in a position against your compatriot Lance Armstrong (seven times winner of the Tour de France). How was your relationship with him until then?

GL: In 1998 he called me and invited me for dinner. I think that at a point he must have thought that our stories were similar. I came back to the top after my hunting accident. He wanted to come back after cancer. That evening Lance told me that he wanted to win the Tour de France. I thought: "It's impossible. He never finished in the top 30 before..." He looked like he wanted to be my friend, but he also looked annoyed to be compared to me. He didn't look comfortable. He's someone who lives with a rage inside of him. I don't think he is a happy man. But in 1999 and his first success in the Tour, I believed in his great comeback. After the Festina affair (Richard Virenque team was banned from the Tour 1998 for doping), I thought that the peloton had been cleaned. I didn't have contact with Armstrong anymore, but I was happy to see an American at the top of cycling. And I had my bike business: an American winning the Tour, it was all good for business!



E: In 2004, in the book "L.A. Confidentiel", you ended up putting in question the honesty of his victories.

GL: All I said about Lance at that point is that I was disappointed that he was working with Dr. Ferrari. Being seen with that guy, that was insane! After the book was published, Lance called me. He threatened to find ten people who would assert I took EPO to win in 1989. I answered that I did win the Tour before EPO appeared, and that my victories were not a miracle, but obtained after two years of suffering and work. There's no mystery: I know my respiratory capacity and his. He has the one of a Fiat, I had the one of a Testarossa! From then on I started receiving threats from people around him. I was told to take back what I said, to apologize... Armstrong's agent and lawyer, Bill Stapleton, even made false apologies published in USA Today under my name. In October 2005, I was called to testify at the trial between Armstrong and an insurance company, which was refusing to pay him because of doping allegations. There I only said again what I said about Dr. Ferrari.



E: Now you are in a conflict with another compatriot, Floyd Landis, winner of the Tour 2006...
GL: It felt like the story with Armstrong was happening all over again. I was really surprised because I thought that Floyd, by opposition to Lance, was a "good guy". When I learnt that he had been tested positive on the Tour 2006, I declared: "If he cheated, it's terrible. But in that case, he should say the truth and save this sport". A few days later, on August 6th, Floyd called me. We had a long conversation, very human, almost friendly. I told him that he could free himself from a so heavy secret and try to start back on new basis. To encourage him to break the wall of silence, I told him a very personal story: I was the victim of sexual abuse. I wanted to make him see that at certain points you need the courage to talk. We agreed that this conversation should stay between us. But after that, to defend himself against doping accusations, Floyd Landis made a lot of comments on a website. He wrote about me: "I'd rather ask Satan for advice than calling Greg LeMond". He also wrote really low things about me, things like: "If I told you what Greg confided to me...". He was insinuating that I was a bad person, that I admitted to him that I did something terrible... I was flabbergasted when I read that.



E: Since then, your relationship kept on deteriorating...
GL: Last May, I was called as a witness at the trial between the USA Anti-doping Agency and Landis. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go, but thinking back of how he tried to damage my reputation, I told myself: "I'm going". The day before the hearing, I got an anonymous call (LeMond found out the same evening that it was a call by Will Geoghan, Landis' manager and friend, and that Landis was with him when the call took place). The man was trying to intimidate me. He was refering to the sexual abuse I suffered. But Geoghan was making up a new story, talking about an uncle that would have molested me. Actually it was a friend of the family... (his voice is breaking). I instantlly thought that this affair was going to be thrown on the public place. It was sickening. I hung up. I called back the number that was written on my cellphone screen five minutes later. Landis' manager first pretended to not understand, to not know who Floyd was... It was crazy. The next day I explained in court what happened. I had the proof that Landis and people surrounding him were able to do anything. I got convinced he was guilty. He is a liar: I don't think he can be consider as a Tour de France winner.


E: How does the american audience see the affairs concerning Armstrong and Landis?

GL: American people don't want to believe that they doped. People don't want to know, especially about Lance. His cancer makes him untouchable. Today several sportsmen are in the middle of a network of evidence. They are not caught shooting a gun, but with the smoking gun still in their hand. It's not enough. People put too much admiration and hope in their heroes. They can't admit the slightest doubts. Telling them that their champion cheated is like attacking them directly.


E: Which means do you suggest against doping?

GL: Most importantly tests should be conducted by laboratories that are totally independent of sport federations. Some simple measures could also be taken: first, develop a reliable test to detect growth hormones, one of the main products used. Then, lower the allowed blood cells count, which is 50% today. This pushes those who have a count below that to take EPO to reach just that limit... Finally, why not conduct retroactive controls, going 10 years back (the idea is to use recent methods to analyze old samples from preceeding years)? In case of doping, the victory or the title would be taken back.


E: It goes with the risk to have to cross the names of the ten last winners of the main races!
GL: If it's what it takes, then let's do it! Either the race remains without a winner, or you go down in the classification to find the first clean rider... If those tests existed, some sportsmen would think on longer terms. Today if you're not caught right away, it's okay. Doped riders have the mentality of drug addicts. They don't think anymore about the consequences of their acts. If you knew, right from the beginning of your career, that you could be caught ten years later, you'd have another view on competition.

Interview on Vélo 101

Greg and Geoffrey LeMond are interviewed by the french Vélo 101. They are spending a month in Europe now, riding in the Alps, and doing l'Etape du Tour next Monday (July 16).

Nice reading... I may translate a bit more when I have time (or if there are requests...). Greg indicates that he only wants to finish l'Etape du Tour, and that he didn't lose enough weight yet to do more (10 kg so far... ). He's training seriously since last January. His son Geoffrey is riding since March 2006, but not decided to get pro... with worries about doping: "Now is not the right era to become pro", to which Greg adds: "Even if he could become pro, I wouldn't want it".

To the question: "Did you ever dream that your children become pro?",
Greg answers: "No, the life as a pro is difficult. Mainly since the 1990's.. those years have destroyed for me the possibility for my kids to do pro racing. There is so much difference between over-programmed riders and natural ones."

Geoffrey is asked about his memories about his father racing:
"I remember a lot. In 1989 (he was 5), I was walking along the Champs-Elysees with my grandfather. I think that even if my parents were trying to just distract me during the Tour, I was following well what was going on in the race. On the Champs-Elysees, I remember giant champagne bottles with Laurent Fignon's face on them. During the final TT, I was watching my dad. He won, and some people took me, policemen, they carried me towards journalists, then to my mom, and then only I got with dad. It's something really memorable. It was a bit risky, I was a bit afraid with all the fuss."


I can't help but put the pictures here:













A next part of the interview will be published on Monday, where LeMond will talk about Armstrong and Landis.

A bad joke?

Landis' tour to promote his book "Positively False" made him appear on NPR, and in this Q&A, he is asked whether or not he knew about his manager's plan to "blackmail" Greg LeMond. Landis answers that he wouldn't characterize Geoghegan's call as blackmail... and that all it was was a bad joke, and that LeMond shouldn't have come to the hearing and had nothing to do there, and that the whole situation should have been avoided, but that there was nothing he (Floyd) could have done about it.

The moderator insists that if it was indeed a bad joke, it was one of horrible taste. Couldn't agree more on that...

And nothing he could have done about it? How about that post on the Daily Peloton Forum? Landis didn't have only a passive attitude in this... He started it, he called Greg, he wrote that post... How about apologizing publicly on that forum for the threatening post, taking it back, explaining LeMond's secret wasn't something damaging for his character at all and was something of private order that he shouldn't have mention?

Nope... really nothing he could have done. Just wear a black suit...

In another Q&A session, when asked about Greg, Landis answers:

"Greg LeMond needs help," Landis said. "That's really all there is to say about that. He had no reason to be at that hearing. He added nothing to the case from either side. All he did was distract from the facts of the case."

How nice of him to be concerned about Greg! Just a bad joke... and Greg is messed up so all he says is worthless...

How can you say publicly about someone you hardly know that he "needs help"? How depreciating and condescendent is that? Belittle those who oppose to you is the attitude of a coward.



On a totally different note, and in french: Greg's going to be the "legend of the Tour" portrayed today on the french channel France 2, in the pre-show before the live broadcasting of the stage.

Greg sera la légende du Tour évoquée aujourd'hui sur France 2 par Jean-Paul Ollivier. Diffusion entre 13h50 et 14h30.

Légendes du Tour sur Eurosport

Greg LeMond est la légende du Tour du jour sur le site de TF1/Eurosport.
Un portrait sans surprise... qui rappelle l'originalité de Greg, et choisit cette photo, l'une de mes favorites :

The Tour started...

PezCycling has Greg's views on the first week of the Tour de France. After all the agitation with the Landis arbitration, I like to hear Greg talking about plain cycling... to see he is still passionate about the Tour.

It was planned that he would go with his son Geoffrey at l'Etape du Tour on July 16th, I'm waiting for news about it...

Otherwise in the news, many articles talking about the Tour and doping mention Greg and the Landis affair, as well as reminding Greg's accusations about Lance. Paul Kimmage has a new article about the start of the Tour de France in London, and the history of doping since the 1990's:

zero tolerance is the only way forward. There is just one question. Why didn’t this happen when riders were dying from conditions brought on by their drug abuse in the 1990s? Why has it taken until the sport is on its knees?

Kimmage also recalls Greg's quote from last week "Big Interview":

“This sport needs to bleed to death before it can rebuild”

Why has it gone so far?

Where I stand

LeMond bashers are all really loud out here on the internet, and I doubt big time that they are really more numerous than LeMond admirers... just... louder and more eager to babble the same arguments against him over and over again.

First I got really annoyed with this bashing, but now it just makes me roll my eyes, and recent developments in the cycling world are making me really proud to be a LeMond fan.

I'm french and discovered cycling thanks to Greg. I got dragged by my mom when I was 13 to go see the arrival of the time trial of the Tour de France in 1989 in my hometown of Rennes. It was raining heavily, I got squeezed painfully against barriers, and yet I got hooked. The sound of the wheels on the cobblestones, the incredible pace of each rider arriving, it all just felt fascinating. And then in the far, there was this guy standing on the podium with a yellow jersey and a flashy pink cap. I loved the colours...

After more smashing in the crowd and fighting to get out of the fuss, my mom and I got stuck close to a stage where the post-race show "A chacun son tour" was filmed. And on that stage, a few meters away from me, the guy with the yellow jersey and the pink cap was being interviewed. His adorable accent while speaking french amused me, and he was telling he wanted to thank his wife for this victory and that he was happier than when we won the Tour in 1986.

Faint memories of an American winning the Tour a few years before came back to my mind... I also remembered the news of that American rider getting injured and not able to defend his title. But all was really blurry on my mind.

In the next few days, I didn't miss any broadcasting of the Tour stages. I got totally appealed to the story of this guy who seems so happy to just be on his bike, always smiling, nice with journalists and making funny comments. I must also acknowledge that teen me found him really handsome.

The Tour 1989 was a pure delight to follow. And the final time trial was the most exciting sport event I ever saw in my life. Being a Greg LeMond fan on July 23rd, 1989 was a blessing. As we say in french: "Le pied total"!

I followed the next Tours and other important races that were shown on TV with great thrill. I gathered all press articles about Greg I could find. I cried when he announced his retirement in 1994. And I grew up, and forgot about the Tour, forgot about Greg...

Until 2001. At that time, I knew Lance Armstrong was the new champion. I found his story also quite interesting... I had quite a bit of admiration for the guy. I watched the Tour sporadically, with a bit of nostalgia, remembering the excitement it gave me at the end of my childhood. But somehow, nothing felt really appealing. Those guys look too much like robots. None of them were answering interviews in french with cute accents anymore... None of them looked like smiling kids happy to ride a bike.

And then came the LeMond controversy. And as many, I first wondered. I didn't like what I was hearing. I didn't want to think about doping. During all my former LeMond fan years, I was shrugging at and pushing away all the doping insinuations. My Greg was clean. The full peloton was clean. These guys were heroes.

And I didn't like to hear the guy I remembered as "utterly nice Greg" critizing someone. And I wondered. Is he jealous of Lance? I needed to know more.

In my pile of old articles from the 1990's, I found back one article where
Greg was mentioning Dr Ferrari and the danger that this man was going to be for the future of cycling. I wasn't convinced, but I started to get big doubts about what cycling had become.

I kept on following cycling from far, as well as what Greg was saying about it... I got back a bit of interest. I replayed my tapes of the Tours 1989 to 1992. I still loved what I was watching.

And then came 2004 and the Simeoni episode. All my admiration for Lance disappeared instantly. That guy appeared to me as a brute, a man ready to all to win and make others shut up.

I'm now thinking Armstrong is a cheat, and one of the godfathers of the mafia system that cycling has become. I think he is threatening people opposing him. I think the money involved around him and his image as a hero will probably protect him for the rest of his life.

Notice that I said "I'm thinking". Not "I'm convinced". Not need to scream at me... If you have arguments to convince me I'm wrong, my ears are wide open.

And I won't yell at people who say LeMond is a bitter old champion full of sour grapes. If that's your opinion, then try to convince me that you're right. Without reharshing the same false arguments (for instance the usual "LeMond must have doped, he held the record for the fastest time trial in the Tour for 15 years"). I won't ban negative comments about Greg here. Express yourself!

The recent event, the USADA vs. Landis arbitration, LeMond's revelations of his very painful childhood, his courage in testifying and coming out, have increased my admiration for the man big time.

Greg LeMond, the nice, polite, smiling young rider, turned into a tall man of high standards, honesty and coherence. A true human being. Let me say it once again, I'm proud to be a LeMond fan.

The Big Interview

If you're interested in Greg LeMond, you already know that the big recent news about Greg is the interview he did with Paul Kimmage.

Though it's an interesting reading, where we can learn more about the timing, circumstances and consequences of Greg's sexual abuse, the full article is quite frustrating, blurry in its chronology, and giving the idea that Paul Kimmage is interrupting Greg. I'd rather have had more direct quotes from Greg.

It's a shock to realize that Greg was hiding such a dark secret for several decades. When the news came out during the USADA vs. Landis arbitration, I didn't expect that he told his family so recently only. It's impossible to imagine what he's been through all these years. Behind his huge smile on podiums, he was hiding a big load of fear and shame... and was carrying this all alone.

I wanted to be seen as a good person,” LeMond says, “and never wanted to let people down, but I found it hard to handle the fame or adulation. I didn’t feel worthy of it. I was ashamed by who I thought I was because I felt partly responsible [for the abuse] and I was never able to enjoy the stuff I should have been able to enjoy. My first thought when I won the Tour was: ‘My God, I’m going to be famous’, and then I thought, ‘He’s going to call’. I was always waiting for that phone call. I lived in fear that anyone would ever find out.

The statistics about coming out about abuse are terrifying. The average time span between the abuse and talking is 17 years... It's considered that about 85% of men who were abused never come out. That says quite a lot about the amount of shame victims are carrying. I hope that Greg's admission will help other people.

I find the link that Kathy LeMond makes between her husband's past and his view on doping convincing and quite fascinating:

We’ve done a lot of talking about this,” Kathy says. “Why wouldn’t Greg have gone to [Dr X]? Why not? I think Greg was carrying such a load of shame that, like he said, he couldn’t have survived a positive drug test, he probably couldn’t. He had to have something to hold on to that was pure and good about himself, and cycling was that.

It's a bit like hearing Greg say: "I rode clean, but I didn't have any merit, I couldn't do otherwise".
I think Greg's always shown understanding and compassion for riders who admitted to doping. I never heard him sounding judgemental. Pointing his finger to the system and the corruption, to the unethical doctors, but not to the riders (except one of them maybe...). I really don't think he is putting himself on a pedestal above other riders.

Finally, I'm not so happy to see Greg bitter about Landis, and wanting him punished for the infamous call, while it's not clear FL had actually anything to do with the call. But Landis' post on the Daily Peloton Forum was pretty clear and threatening, and I guess enough to trigger Greg's anger. Greg mentions having dealt with a lot of therapy about it, probably to accept that there was nothing to be ashamed of, to realize no one could judge him for that, or use it against him... Landis' post asserting he knew something about Greg that could "severely damage his character", and the threatening phone call by Geoghegan, must have felt pretty destroying. The interview with Kimmage shows that it was far from an easy task for Greg to come testifying.

On another note, Greg was interviewed on Open Source Radio not long ago, talks about doping, and about the recent admissions by Zabel and Riis, and you can see here once again that Greg seems to strongly believe in "The Truth will set you free". He's on from 25'23'' on.

Little introduction

I'm a big Greg LeMond fan, and I felt that this world was lacking a little shrine to the man. So I'm opening this blog, where I'll post recent news about Greg, old and new pictures, recollections of his great times on a bike, archived articles, quotes... anything concerning Greg.

Feel free to comment, whether you love or hate the man. I love and admire him, and I'm eager to share this admiration with anyone. I am well aware that Greg LeMond is also a man of controversy, and I won't turn my eyes on that. I'm eager to share argumentations...

English is not my native language, so be ready for some uneven cobblestones along the way.

The title of this blog is a quote by Greg, from his book "Complete's Book of Bicycling". He probably knows what he is talking about...

Enjoy the ride!