Wednesday, July 18, 2007

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...


8 comments:

Albert Pallàs said...

Great to see Lemond & Fignon together again...they really represented an era on cycling, maybe the last "pure" cycling I have seen so far... :)

Thanks for your efforts on this blog Claire! I left a comment on the Velo101 interview, just let me know what do you think.. ;)

Albert

Anonymous said...

During that interview on Velo Club he also said to Fignon that he finishes as 701st from 8000. Seems pretty good to me. When I looked for the results on the Etape du Tour page he finished after Abraham Olana who was just 10 to 15 minutes before him on a stage of 190 km. Not bad at all.
I also heared Landis about Lemond and I think Floyd is insane instead of Greg. Landis is so desperate about his problems that he's attacking everybody.

Unknown said...

Exactly did Floyd say that was so bad? He's telling the events as they happened. As for his opinion about LeMond...I agree with him.

Why would LeMond tell Landis his deepest darkest secret - over the phone less - and not be willing to tell his own family? Ever ask yourself that question before jumping on the LeMond bandwagon and bashing Landis???

Claire D. said...

Michael: Do you know how to read? I feel like I'm losing my time answering now... I already answered the same question you already asked on another of my posts. I guess you're just coming here, you ask your question, and don't care about what others have to say. Nice way to hold a conversation...

Where did you get the idea that LeMond told Landis, and Landis only, his secret? Did you read any of the interviews he did on the topic? Did you watch the hearing and LeMond's testimony? He said about his conversation with Landis: "I told him: I haven't told this to many people, but I was sexually abused before I got into cycling..." Does it mean the same to you as "I didn't tell anybody yet but I'm telling you now"?

Erik said...

The Lemond/Landis affair has no winner. GL was a looser in showing up at the arbitration, prepared to spew his hearsay; FL was a looser via his asinine business manager.

Lemond' pubic comments the last several years have all too often been unsubstantiated muck raking. It makes me sad to see it. He’s a fallen hero, done in by his own words and insecurities. I have no doubt he is sincere and believes his views on doping are spot on, but he’s been out of the game for a dozen years.

BustinBilly said...

Lemond's testimony wasn't hearsay, he heard Floyd's and his manager's words himself. Floyd needs to meet with an expert in sexual abuse and learn some sensitivity.

Thanks again for the report on Greg and Laurent, Claire. And for the video captures.

AssaultBlog said...

Erik. Loser is spelled with one O, just like idiOt.

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.