FredCast interviews Greg LeMond

David Bernstein (FredCast) posted a long interview with Greg LeMond about why he sat front row at LA's press conference at Interbike and explaining more what he asked there, and his ideas to be able to detect autologuous blood transfusion for instance, his views on pro cycling right now...

Really nice complete interview, highly recommended ;-)!

FredCast has the audio of the press conference

Wow... two posts on the same day. That's a first for me.

You can listen to the press conference there: http://www.thefredcast.com/

Big thanks to David ‘Fredcast‘ Bernstein for putting that online!

Interbike

Cyclingnews has a quite complete report about the press conference made by Lance Armstrong and in which Greg LeMond questioned the anti-doping program that will be led by Don Catlin, a UCLA specialist about doping tests and who helped uncover the BALCO scandal, to ensure that Armstrong is clean.

Don Catlin will be paid by team Astana, to perform "independent" (add sarcastic laugh here...) testing on Armstrong. As was pointed out by LeMond in this press conference, Catlin will conduct tests concerning steroids and EPO use, but no measurements of Armstrong VO2max, power outputs... or anything else that might help uncover blood doping. Talk about transparency...

Photos of the press conference are here.


And this is the article from VeloNews about this conference:

Armstrong press conference turns tense
By Neal Rogers
Posted Sep. 25, 2008

A scheduled Lance Armstrong press conference at the Interbike cycling trade show in Las Vegas turned tense Thursday morning when three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond questioned his plan to disclose his blood and urine values during Armstrong’s 2009 comeback season.

Armstrong announced Wednesday in New York City that he is working closely with Don Catlin, who formerly ran UCLA’s World Anti-Doping Agency accredited laboratory. In an attempt at full transparency, Catlin will post Armstrong’s biomarkers online for the sports community to see.

LeMond, who has been at odds with Armstrong for years going back to the Texan’s relationship with controversial Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, sat in the front row and was granted the first question by Armstrong.

LeMond immediately brought Catlin’s methods into question, claiming that VO2 max, oxygen intake and power output can be used as indicators of whether a rider has used illicit performance-enhancing methods.

Catlin, whose background is in laboratory testing for banned substances, answered LeMond by saying, “that’s not my area of expertise.”

LeMond told Catlin and Armstrong that it might not be Catlin’s area of expertise, but it is an area that Australian researcher Michael Ashenden has studied.

Armstrong, who was joined on the podium by Catlin and American teenage cycling phenom Taylor Phinney, then interjected, telling LeMond, “We are here to talk about a few things — the global cancer campaign, my comeback to cycling… I appreciate your being here, but it’s time for everyone here to move on.”

Lemond replied, “So the whole history has just been passed over?”

Armstrong then moved on to the next question.

LeMond drew a similar line of questioning later in the press conference, and after several minutes Armstrong quipped, “Greg, I almost feel like we should have a fourth chair up here” before cutting LeMond off and again taking other questions.

Little update...

Bikeradar.com has a nice little article about Greg here, with a few pictures.

It finishes with this:

Whatever the outcome of the legal wrangling with Trek, it's apparent Greg LeMond loves the same thing we do: endless ribbons of pavement on which to ride, a clear 75-degree day, and the company of fellow cyclists to remind us why cycling will always matter.

With Armstrong coming back next year (makes me nauseous to just write it... ), it's nice to get little reminders on the positive aspects of cycling.

And about LA coming back, it's reported here and there that there has been a little tense moment this morning at the Interbike 2008 in Las Vegas, to which Greg LeMond participates with LeMond Fitness, when Greg asked a question about doping to Lance Armstrong during a conference the latter was holding. There's no report yet about what was actually said, but I'll try to keep us informed ;-).

25 years ago today...

September 4th, 1983: Greg LeMond won his first World Championships in Altenrhein, Switzerland (Elite men's road race... We know he got a gold medal and more at the Junior ones in 1979).

The Bobke Strut blog has a great post about his win, with a lot of material, links and pictures, that I had never seen before. I highly recommend a visit there!

A few video interviews

I put up some videos of an interview that Greg LeMond did when he was visiting the Tour de France 2008 on my youtube account:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The videos are from this site and can be seen there too. My purpose for copying them on youtube is just to make the interview easier to find and have the three parts close together.

Well, actually, the main reason is so that we are able to watch the interview without having to endure the horrendous Trek commercial that precedes each part of it ;-) ...

LeMond and Fignon riding today's TT together

Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon rode the time-trial Cholet-Cholet (stage 4) of the Tour de France this morning. It's great to see them getting along so well, after also having seen them being interviewed side by side last year on the Tour (video is here ;-)). It was said on French television that they did the TT in about 45 min (so 'just' 10 min more than the stage winner today, and only 2 min more than the last... not bad at all!)

I hope there'll be videos or pictures available somewhere.

As other news, several articles (for instance that one) mention that Greg's favorite for the Tour is Cadel Evans.



And I'm editing this post to add that I just found this video interview of Greg on Versus. Several things to comment on in what he said. I hope to have more time later to come back on it ;-).








And edited again, to add this other video on Versus. Nice one ;-)

Greg on the Tour in Brittanny

As I said before, there are right now quite some news about Greg and I have a hard time to catch up here. Right now I have time just to indicate the latest news. Sorry about that...

And the latest news is the following: Greg LeMond was on the Tour de France today, for the 2nd stage (Auray - St Brieuc) and shared his will to participate in the anti-doping fight and in the changes that are needed to clean cycling. He gave interviews that are reported in many media sources. Here's a link to the most complete interview, as far as I can tell... One of the main points he made is that cycling does not need UCI anymore. Here's the quote:

"The UCI is just there to stamp licenses and make the regulations. The solution for cycling is very simple: organizers and riders should create their own federation and take over the sport"

I couldn't agree more ;-).

He was invited by his former teammate Eric Boyer to follow the stage, and Greg could be seen briefly on French television, beside Bernard Hinault in an interview conducted after the stage.

Here is also a video of one of the interviews Greg did this morning in Auray.
It is also indicated in the media that Greg drew big crowds around him and was asked for many autographs. His presence on the Tour didn't go unnoticed, and that's good news...

What a bike!

First I have to apologize for the very long delay for a new update... Life's been a bit hectic recently (traditional excuse...). But I'm now back in business with this blog!

There have been quite a few news about Greg LeMond recently, and I'll catch up with putting them as updates in the next few days, promise!

And for a start, Nicolas, one of the blog readers, has had this really nice idea as a tribute to Greg: he recreated a 1983 Gitane bike, looking strikingly exactly like what Greg was riding in 1983!

Here is the story of this very special bike, by Nicolas:

Hi everyone & thank you Claire for your kind words.

This is my "new" bike. In fact it is a Trek-US Postal 2003 bike that was given to me by my brother. I've never been an Armstrong fan so I wasn't too excited about the painting & stickers so...

I tried to make this bike as close to Greg's 1983 Gitane bike, the one he had when he won his first rainbow jersey. I was 9 at the time and this is when it all started for me as a Greg LeMond fan. You see, we had this habit with my father & older brother to race on our bikes, pretending we were champions. 1 week before the actual race in Switzerland, we made our own world championship. My father was Fignon, my brother was Hinault and I was Greg. Needless to say...I won. Then the real Greg won too ! That was a sign.

This is my tribute to Greg and the great many years I spent since then enjoying his victories and inspiration over & over again.

This bike has been painted in the same electric blue, I added yellow tape on the handlebars and switched from shimano to campagnolo group to get as close as the 1983 modolo brakes as possible. I finally found good reproductions of Gitane decals on e-bay Australia.

What's really funny is that I took the bike to get this done only 2 weeks prior to Trek dropping LeMond bikes.

I appreciate the kind of irony this bike gives to that story.

And here is Greg riding this bike ;-) :D !!

Mark Whitehead

If you want to hear really nice things about Greg LeMond, listen to Mark Whitehead on the latest episode of the Competitor Radio. Mark Whitehead rode with Greg as a Junior and simply found him "phenomenal".

Among other quotes:

"He is American cycling"

"THE best of all time was Greg LeMond"

and after LeMond won the Junior Worldchampionships in 1979, at age 18:

He told me "I'm gonna win the Tour de France", and I told him "You're crazy Greg!"