Greg LeMond

Context: Greg LeMond was born in Lakewood, California, and raised in the Washoe Valley, ranch country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range between Reno and Carson City, Nevada. His parents are Bob LeMond and Bertha (d. 2006), and he has two sisters, Kathy and Karen. LeMond attended Earl Wooster High School, but lived too far away to participate in team sports.  LeMond's introduction to cycling came in 1975 thanks to freestyle skiing pioneer Wayne Wong, who recommended the bike as an ideal off-season training aid. LeMond started competing in 1976, and after dominating the Intermediate category (13-15) and winning the first 11 races he entered, he received permission to ride against older, more seasoned competitors in the Junior (16-19) category.  In 1977, while still only 15, LeMond finished second in the Tour of Fresno to John Howard, then the United States's top road cyclist and the 1971 Pan American Games champion. LeMond caught the attention of Eddie Borysewicz, the US Cycling Federation's national team coach, who described LeMond as "a diamond, a clear diamond." LeMond represented the United States at the 1978 Junior World Championships in Washington, D.C., where he finished ninth in the road race, and again in the 1979 Junior World Championships in Argentina, where he won gold, silver and bronze medals--the highlight being his victory in the road race. At age 18, LeMond was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic cycling team, the youngest ever to make the U.S. team. However, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from competing there.  Borysewicz, whom LeMond described as his "first real coach," wanted to retain his protege through the next Olympic cycle and discouraged him from turning pro, but LeMond was determined. Nevertheless, while he was the reigning Junior World Road Champion in 1980, LeMond received no professional offers, and so in the spring 1980, he joined the U.S. National cycling team for a 6-week European racing campaign. There, he finished third overall in the Circuit des Ardennes before winning the 1980 Circuit de la Sarthe stage race in France, thereby becoming the first American and youngest rider of any nationality "in the history of the sport to win a major pro-am cycling event [in Europe]." That victory, and the subsequent press coverage, raised LeMond's profile in Europe and he was scouted at his next event (the Ruban Granitier Breton stage race) by Cyrille Guimard, the Renault-Elf-Gitane team's directeur sportif. Guimard said he was impressed with LeMond's spirit, and told him, "You have the fire to be a great champion," before offering him a professional contract for 1981 with Renault. After he returned to the United States, LeMond won the 1980 Nevada City Classic, considered to be one of the most historic and challenging professional cycling races in United States. Despite eventually receiving several other offers to turn professional besides Guimard's, LeMond did not consider them seriously, and he signed with Renault in Paris on the day the 1980 Tour de France finished. CANNOTANSWER

Question: Other than being introduced to cycling by Wayne Wong, what else helped Greg LeMond get into cycling?
Answer: CANNOTANSWER