Greg LeMond - How Have Steroids Changed Cycling? - YouTube Greg LeMond - How Have Steroids Changed Cycling? Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Mar 17, 2008 Complete video at: Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond discusses the effects of drug doping on professional cycling. ---- Ethics, Doping, and the Future of Cycling with cyclist Greg LeMond. Greg LeMond has long been a critic of doping in cycling. During 2007, he played an unexpected role in the international arbitration hearing that eventually decided American cyclist Floyd Landis should forfeit his 2006 Tour de France title due to testing that found abnormally high levels of testosterone.

LeMond testified that he had spoken with Landis after his "A" urine sample had tested positive, urging him that if his "B" sample was also positive, he should come clean, help his sport, and "more importantly, help himself." Before his testimony, LeMond had been threatened by Landis' manager. The doping problem has been most public in the Tour de France - two stage winners of the 2007 Tour withdrew from the race amid doping allegations - but its influence is so pervasive that T-Mobile recently withdrew its sponsorship of a professional cycling team, stating that the company did not want to associate its brand with doping. - Santa Clara University Greg LeMond is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three time winner of the Tour de France in 1986, 1989, and 1990. Gwen Knapp is a staff writer for the sports section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Category LeMond: Lance Armstrong 'top 30 at best' without doping FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest LeMond: Lance Armstrong 'top 30 at best' without doping Former cycling great Greg LeMond says Lance Armstrong would have been "top 30 at best" and "not capable of winning" the Tour de France without the help of doping -- and he says Armstrong should go to jail for Post to Facebook LeMond: Lance Armstrong 'top 30 at best' without doping Former cycling great Greg LeMond says Lance Armstrong would have been "top 30 at best" and "not capable of winning" the Tour de France without the help of doping -- and he says Armstrong should go to jail for Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 43 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs LeMond: Lance Armstrong 'top 30 at best' without doping Brent Schrotenboer, USA TODAY Sports Published 6:22 p.m. ET Oct.

21, 2013 | Updated 12:52 a.m. ET Oct. 22, 2013 This photo from 1999 shows former Tour de France winner Greg Lemond of the U.S., left, posing with then-overall leader Lance Armstrong of the U.S. prior to the start of the ninth stage of the Tour de France. Armstrong ultimately won the tour that year but would be stripped of that win and six other Tour victories in 2012 after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brought a case against him that included a massive file of evidence. LeMond now says Armstrong perpetuated the greatest fraud in the history of sports. (Photo: Laurent Rebours, AP) Story Highlights Greg LeMond, only U.S.

rider to win the Tour de France, says Lance Armstrong ran 'organized mafia' LeMond says Armstrong's transgressions are serious enough to warrant a jail sentence Armstrong is fighting several civil suits alleging fraud since the cyclist confessed to doping 454 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 43 COMMENTEMAILMORE Former cycling great Greg LeMond says Lance Armstrong would have been "top 30 at best" and "not capable of" winning the Tour de France without the help of doping. He also says Armstrong should go to jail for his transgressions. In an interview that aired Monday night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, LeMond called Armstrong a "thug" who used his cancer-survival story and cancer charity to manipulate the cancer community and shield himself from allegations. CNN billed the interview as LeMond's first in-depth interview since Armstrong admitted to doping in January after several years of strenuous denials. In April, LeMond spoke at a symposium on doping in Austin, Texas, and said he had "no vendetta" against Armstrong.

He also said then that "I don't rejoice" over the fact that Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles in the Tour de France, which left LeMond as the only American to have officially won the prestigious race. In the interview with Cooper, LeMond was far more condemning of Armstrong, adding to a bitter history between the two dating to 2001, when LeMond questioned Armstrong's involvement with Michele Ferrari, a doctor linked to doping scandals. Cooper asked LeMond if Armstrong perpetrated the greatest fraud in sports history. LeMond replied, "Absolutely. Absolutely. The greatest fraud was that -- I mean, I know his physical capability. He is a top 30 at best. I mean, at best. No matter what. If he was clean, everybody was clean, he was top 30 at best. He is not capable of, not -- capable of the top five." LeMond said one of the biggest tools in Armstrong's scheme - besides doping - was his cancer-support foundation Livestrong. "He manipulated the cancer community," LeMond said. "I mean, I have family members with cancer. Everybody has been affected -- by cancer.

But it was the manipulation and using that as -- a way to, like, it was like Teflon. He used the money, he used the foundation to -- not only cover for him but also destroy people." "What do you think should happen to him now?" Cooper asked. "This is not a sporting infraction," said LeMond, a three-time winner of the Tour de France. "This is criminal." "You think he should go to jail?" Cooper asked. "I do, yes," LeMond said. DOCUMENTS: Read the entire USADA case against Armstrong The federal government dropped a criminal fraud investigation into Armstrong last year without explanation. But it has sued Armstrong for civil fraud in a pending case that says Armstrong defrauded the U.S. Postal Service out of $40 million in sponsorship money. The suit claims Armstrong's doping violated his contract with the USPS cycling team and that the USPS wouldn't have paid the money if it knew Armstrong was using blood transfusions and performance-enhancing drugs to boost his performances on the bike. It's one of five federal or state lawsuits that have accused Armstrong of fraud since his televised confession to talk-show host Oprah Winfrey.

But Armstrong and his team of attorneys are officially 1-0 in fighting his post-Oprah civil suits after a group of consumer plaintiffs filed notice on Friday that they would give up their case against the cyclist and his book publishers. The plaintiffs in that case had sued Armstrong and his publishers for more than $5 million, claiming they wouldn't have bought his autobiographies if they knew the books were based on lies. Their decision to quit the case comes a month after a federal judge gutted their case in September, ruling that Armstrong had a right to lie in his books, which include the bestsellers It's Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts. The ruling left the plaintiffs with few choices: They could amend their complaint and keep fighting or quit. They chose the latter, giving Armstrong his first lawsuit victory since his doping confession, with four other lawsuits pending in state and federal court, including two from insurance companies that paid Armstrong's bonuses for winning the Tour de France. The judge denied requests by Armstrong and the book publishers for the plaintiffs to pay for their attorneys' fees. In another case filed against him last year prior to his confession, Armstrong reached an undisclosed settlement with the Sunday Times of London, which accused him of fraud.

Armstrong had sued the Times several years ago when it published allegations about his doping – a case that the newspaper opted to end by paying him about 300,000 pounds in 2006. Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his titles in the Tour de France last year after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a huge dossier of evidence against him that portrayed him as ringleader of a vast cheating and cover-up scheme. All of his major sponsors dropped him shortly thereafter. PHOTOS: ARMSTRONG THROUGH THE YEARS End Zone: For LeMond, it's not about the bikes - NY Daily News Greg LeMond's lawsuit against Trek is about more than broken promises - it's about Lance, too End Zone: For LeMond, it's not about the bikes Greg LeMond and his wife, Kathy, take a break from their legal battle against Trek Bicycling.

(Hagen for News) DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Updated: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 8:13 PM Greg LeMond 's hair is steel gray now, and he has inevitably filled out the skinny frame he pedaled to three Tour de France victories two decades ago, but even at 48 he retains the boyish energy that endeared him to sports fans everywhere in 1986, when he became the first American to win what many consider the most demanding contest in sports. The loquaciousness is still there, too - the extremely informed, often poetic, sometimes wandering observations that have, from time to time, gotten him in trouble. LeMond is known for being difficult to track down, but easy to talk to; the second you do catch ahold of him for a conversation, it's off to the races. So it was from the very first minute that LeMond - accompanied by Kathy, his wife of nearly 30 years - arrived for a recent interview at a sushi restaurant near Columbus Circle . Over nearly four hours, the dark, empty room filled up with diners and emptied out again, but LeMond was just getting started.

"Riding helped me channel that," he admits. For all his chattiness, there is an air of caution, and as the conversation moves to LeMond's ongoing legal battles, he turns a suspicious eye on diners at adjacent tables, and then asks for extra assurances he's not being taped. Fifteen years after he retired from cycling, LeMond is still casting wary glances over his shoulder, looking for pursuers. While he had considerable worries in the 1980s - French cycling rivals, toxic shotgun pellets buried in his chest after a hunting accident (they are still there, including in the lining of his heart), and a secret history of sexual abuse that wouldn't emerge publicly until 2007 – LeMond knows he's still a target. For the last 18 months, LeMond has been locked in a brutal breach-of-contract litigation with Trek, a Wisconsin -based bicycle corporation that had contracts with both LeMond and Lance Armstrong from the 1990s until March of last year, when LeMond sued Trek. The company made LeMond-branded bikes and sponsors Armstrong's high-powered, Tour de France-winning teams.

LeMond has racked up something near a million dollars in legal bills, and recently replaced his lawyers. Trek has countersued, severing any relationship with LeMond. What on its surface is a contract dispute about sales figures and "best efforts" is also a showdown between LeMond and Armstrong. LeMond's complaint is full of allegations about Armstrong and doping, and although Armstrong has insisted he's not involved - "Greg LeMond is never on my to-do list," he told Men's Journal - he has allegedly used his leverage with Trek to try to rein in LeMond's public statements. Furthermore, Trek's legal team has been assisted by Public Strategies Inc , a consulting firm that caters to conservative politicians and is home to consultant Mark McKinnon , who is close to Armstrong. The two notoriously determined and obsessive athletes have been feuding for years. An awkward confrontation they had about doping last fall at a bike convention became a creepy hit on YouTube , and after LeMond cast aspersions on Armstrong this summer, Armstrong tweaked LeMond via Twitter , writing that "someone drank too much Hate-orade and ate too many Hater-tots." Now, the case is approaching a crossroads.

Trek recently filed its final brief in a motion for summary judgment in U.S. District Court in Minnesota and a hearing on that motion is scheduled for Tuesday. If Judge Richard Kyle denies the motion, the whole nasty case could spill into a federal courtroom as early as March of next year. Not that things haven't already turned nasty. Just last month, Armstrong's ex-wife, Kristin Armstrong , was drawn in, giving a sworn, videotaped deposition during which she was asked if she ever saw her ex-husband use performance-enhancing drugs (she complied with instructions from her attorney, and did not answer). A transcript of the deposition obtained by the Daily News reveals that two of the attorneys present spent a good deal of the nearly two-hour session accusing each other of bad faith or slander. Ms. Armstrong was represented during the process by Tim Herman , who has represented her ex-husband for at least five years, and was questioned by LeMond's new attorney, James DiBoise. "I'm not going to sit here and let you badger and annoy Ms. Armstrong about issues that she has long passed and that have nothing to do with this lawsuit top side or bottom," said Herman, who threatened to suspend the proceeding.

For her part, Kristen Armstrong (who was married to Lance Armstrong from 1998 to 2003 and had three children with him) said at the end of the deposition that it was only "mildly harassing." "I feel like Lance should be here answering questions about his business dealings with Trek," she said at the end of the meeting. "It feels like digging up things in my past, and that's so not my life today." There is considerable dispute over why LeMond never deposed Armstrong himself. LeMond claims it's the reason he found a new law firm, and while a magistrate judge overseeing the claim partly limited LeMond's discovery efforts, including his request to see Armstrong's contract with Trek, Herman told the Daily News he would not have tried to prevent the deposition from taking place (as he did with Kristin Armstrong's). At any rate, DiBoise, the new attorney, says that if the case proceeds to trial, he would seek to subpoena Armstrong should Armstrong visit Minnesota, where the trial would take place. Despite having lots of lawyers, Armstrong has mostly avoided courtrooms. In 2005, he brought high-profile defamation suits against a slew of people associated with "L.A.

Confidential," a book accusing him of doping, but quietly withdrew the complaint just before it went to trial in Europe . The lawsuits apparently achieved the effect of scaring American publishers away from printing a translation of the book, and Armstrong never had to go under oath in that case. David Walsh , a British journalist who was one of the authors of the book, has said that Armstrong avoids courtroom battles because of his political ambitions. In public settings, Armstrong has always vigorously denied using performance-enhancing drugs. * * * By now, Greg LeMond is no stranger to the legal system. He won a large settlement from the managers of The Yellowstone Club, a private ski resort in Montana , and he testified in arbitration cases that were the fallout of Floyd Landis 's positive drug test for exogenous testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France. During that case, an associate of Landis' called LeMond and mocked him for having been sexually abused as a child and threatened to reveal details of the abuse. The experience left LeMond understandably outraged at the corruption that tends to accompany doping, particularly when an athlete is surrounded by people who stand to gain from prolonging the deception - keeping the secrets secret.

Greg Lemond (r.) chats with Lance Armstrong during the Tour de France in 1994. (Rondeau/Getty) The last year and half's legal maelstrom with Trek has all but consumed the LeMonds. In the course of the dispute, LeMond has emerged as the most prominent doubter of Armstrong, all but accusing the seven-time Tour de France winner of doping. And for LeMond, the doping issue isn't just about cheating: it's about life and death. In his complaint, LeMond says there have been over 100 deaths since 1990 from suspected complications involving performance-enhancing drugs. "There are so many people who have died of cycling, and that didn't happen when I was racing," LeMond says, citing the rise of the anemia drug erythropoietin (EPO), which has devastated cycling. "These riders are being used as lab rats. It's not about the doping. It's about all the criminal activity that goes on around it." Over lunch, the LeMonds talk about hacked e-mail accounts, taped phone calls, missing tapes and the sophisticated political consulting firm assisting Trek. Some in the cycling community have painted the LeMonds as paranoid.

Their question: why wouldn't we be? They've antagonized three tremendously powerful forces - a large corporation, Armstrong and his legion of yellow-braceleted supporters, and the doping culture that still holds cycling hostage. For LeMond, it all began in 2001, when Walsh wrote a story in the Sunday Times of London exposing Armstrong's relationship with Michele Ferrari , an infamous Italian doctor who was accused of aiding corrupt cyclists with doping. LeMond, initially a supporter of Armstrong's, had grown suspicious, and spoke to Walsh for a story. "When I heard he was working with Michele Ferrari, I was devastated," LeMond was quoted as saying of Armstrong. "If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud." Today, LeMond calls the comment "unremarkable," but Armstrong was upset enough about it that his agent sought (and obtained) a retraction. During her deposition, LeMond's attorney asked Kristin Armstrong if she would characterize LeMond's comment as derogatory. "That would depend," said Armstrong. "On what?" asked DiBoise. "On his intent," said Armstrong.

"It could be a compliment." Lance Armstrong certainly didn't see it that way, according to LeMond. The lawsuit alleges he called LeMond, "tacitly acknowledged his use of EPO," and threatened to implicate LeMond in doping. Further, LeMond claims that Armstrong reacted to the article by vowing to sabotage LeMond's own agreement with Trek. (LeMond argues Kristin Armstrong was present for that conversation in July of 2001, and hence her testimony was essential to the case.) One thing is certain: Trek CEO John Burke was put in the unenviable position in 2001 of trying to mediate the dispute between two star cyclists, both of whom brought millions of dollars into his company. Phone calls he made in that effort were tape-recorded, according to the lawsuit, which cites a phone call to LeMond in which Burke is said to have "agreed that the nature of Mr. Armstrong's pressure upon Mr.

LeMond and Trek constituted extortion." Ralph Weber , an attorney representing Trek, characterizes Burke's efforts to appease Armstrong and rein in LeMond as diplomacy: "John was trying, in a Henry Kissinger -like fashion, to find peace between the two men," Weber said. Seven years later, Burke was forced to give up on peacemaking; a month after LeMond's lawsuit landed on Trek's doorstep, the company countersued LeMond on April 14, 2008. It was the official end of a lucrative deal - the partnership reportedly earned Trek more than $100 million since it began in 1995 ($5 million of that, reportedly, going to LeMond himself). For Trek, the case demonstrates the conflicts of marketing in a notoriously dirty sport. While the company forbids doping among teams it sponsors, it also told LeMond that as a contractual partner, he could criticize doping only generally - not point his finger at specific athletes, particularly one that happens to be the company's main cash cow.

* * * The case has forced Trek to defend itself by citing specific ways in which it fulfilled its "best efforts" obligations to support LeMond's line of bikes over the years. In their arguments, Weber and Trek have cited awards won, sales conventions held, and so forth. But LeMond's complaint lays out some stark numbers meant to demonstrate the company soft-pedaled its sales agreement. For example, between September of 2001 and June of 2007, Trek only sold $10,393 worth of LeMond bikes in France . "On the best efforts, I think LeMond is totally in the right here," said a person familiar with the case. "That's at most a dozen bikes in France in over five years. The guy speaks French. His name is French. He's a rock star over there." Three-time winner Lemond, after winning his third Tour de France in 1990. (Getty) In the discovery phase, Trek also gathered what it considers an important piece of evidence: a tape-recorded phone call between LeMond, his attorney, and Betsy Andreu , the wife of Armstrong's former teammate, Frankie Andreu .

(Betsy Andreu is one of Armstrong's biggest antagonists; her husband fell out with Armstrong in 2006 after confessing to using EPO while training with Armstrong for the 1999 Tour de France.) LeMond's original legal team fought hard to keep the tape protected by privilege protections, but DiBoise turned it over this fall. Trek's lawyers played the tape for Herman prior to the Kristin Armstrong deposition on Oct. 1, and during the proceeding Herman mentioned it, telling DiBoise it indicates that LeMond is "in the business of attempting to extort concessions or money from Trek." LeMond says he was merely expressing frustration with the constraints of the Trek relationship, and was imagining aloud how he could get out of the contract. DiBoise said he isn't worried about the tape, but Trek clearly thinks of it as ammunition. "We won't characterize in any fashion or comment on it until trial," said Weber, the Trek lawyer. "We think it's very illuminating." * * * During her deposition, which took place at Herman's office in Austin, Tex. , Kristin Armstrong was asked directly about her ex-husband and doping.

"During the period of time that you were living in France or Spain and with Mr. Armstrong, did you ever observe him using any substances to aid his cycling?" asked DiBoise. Complying with strict instructions from Herman, Kristin Armstrong did not respond to that or 18 other questions, many concerning her ex-husband's past associations, statements, or experiences with drugs. "She's not going to answer any questions that have to do with this, with Mr. LeMond's 10-year vendetta against Mr. Armstrong," said Herman. Kristin Armstrong said during the deposition that she didn't know if she was paying for Herman's representation. According to Herman, he has sent Kristin Armstrong a bill. DiBoise also asked Armstrong if she recalled driving with her ex-husband and the Andreus to meet Ferrari at a rest stop along a highway in Europe. Herman objected to the question and instructed his client not to answer it, and suggested that DiBoise was acting in bad faith. DiBoise was also challenged by Weber, who was present for the deposition.

Herman offered DiBoise a qualified apology at the end of the contentious proceeding but before it was over, Herman had filed a motion in a federal court in Minnesota calling the deposition an attempt to harass Kristin Armstrong "and use the discovery process in an illegitimate attempt to further the years long vendetta that Greg LeMond has against Lance Armstrong." All told, Herman entered more than 80 objections, mostly related to the form of the question, but other times citing the spousal communications privilege, which in some cases prevents a court from forcing one spouse to testify against the other. Other questions, Herman said, were asked in a manner that "unreasonably annoys or embarrasses or oppresses" the deponent. Herman called the deposition an "abuse of the process" given the "painful and public" nature of Kristin Armstrong's divorce from Armstrong in 2003. Kathy LeMond was present for the deposition and sat across the table from the deponent. Years earlier, the two women had bonded over their parallel experiences in France, but in this context there was little room for warmth or sympathy.

"I was hopeful that my presence would remind her that there's a lot of victims," says Kathy LeMond. "She's a devoted mother, and she knows that our families are affected. This is real life. It takes such a toll on you. The public humiliation they've attempted to do to Greg, I find it heinous." At the top of the list of those humiliations, the LeMonds put a claim by Trek that LeMond undercut Trek's business by re-selling bikes that he bought from the company at low cost. LeMond feels that claim is tantamount to accusing him of theft. * * * On Tuesday, lawyers for both sides will appear before the district court judge to answer questions arising from the briefs each side has filed. Weber, whose final brief in that motion compares LeMond's complaint to an impressionist painting by Georges Seurat , is confident in his argument. "There's no question about Trek's efforts, in the face of huge challenges, to distribute LeMond bikes," Weber says. "This isn't about doping. Appreciate the timeline.

Greg made statements about Armstrong in 2001, and in 2004, and in 2006, and notwithstanding those comments, Trek continued to distribute high-end road bikes." "This is not just a contract dispute," LeMond counters. "It's about defending myself from people that are out to destroy everything I've done in cycling… I want to hold John Burke accountable. I want to hold Lance Armstrong accountable." Greg LeMond calls on UCI president Pat McQuaid to resign | Sport | The Guardian Greg LeMond calls on UCI president Pat McQuaid to resign • Three-times Tour de France winner says cycling needs change • Head of sport's governing body accused of abusing power The three-times Tour de France winner Greg LeMond has called on the UCI president Pat McQuaid to resign.

Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/AP Press Association Thursday 25 October 2012 07.49 EDT First published on Thursday 25 October 2012 07.49 EDT Close This article is 4 years old The three-times Tour de France winner Greg LeMond has called for the resignation of Pat McQuaid, the president of cycling's world governing body, the UCI. In an open letter published on his Facebook page , LeMond, winner of the 1986, 1989 and 1990 Tours and now the only American winner of the Tour after Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles, was critical of McQuaid and his predecessor, Hein Verbruggen, who remains honorary president of the organisation. "I want to tell the world of cycling to please join me in telling Pat McQuaid to resign," LeMond wrote. "I have never seen such an abuse of power in cycling's history – resign Pat if you love cycling.

Resign even if you hate the sport." LeMond added his weight to the campaign to support the former Sunday Times journalist Paul Kimmage, who is the subject of a defamation suit brought by McQuaid and Verbruggen in Switzerland. The American has made a donation to the fund to support Kimmage's legal fight, but would prefer the money to be used to "lobby for real change". "I would like to use it to lobby for dramatic change in cycling," LeMond added. "The sport does not need Pat McQuaid or Hein Verbruggen – if this sport is going to change it is now. Not next year, not down the road, now! Now or never! "People that really care about cycling have the power to change cycling." LeMond had long been critical of Armstrong before the Texan was stripped of his seven Tour titles by the UCI on Monday, when McQuaid insisted cycling had a future and stressed his determination to be part of it. Armstrong and his United States Postal Service team ran "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen", a 1,000-page US Anti-Doping Agency report concluded.

A special meeting of the UCI's management committee will take place on Friday to discuss the "exact sporting consequences" of the decision, including whether the 1999 to 2005 Tour titles and prize money will be redistributed. David Epstein: Kathy LeMond says Armstrong embarrassed, not truly sorry | SI.com Kathy LeMond: Armstrong embarrassed, not truly sorry Share David Epstein Saturday January 19th, 2013 Kathy LeMond, whose husband, Greg LeMond, won three Tour de France titles, claims Lance Armstrong's confession was full of half-truths. Kevork Djansezian/AP When Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles, it left Greg LeMond as the lone American winner of cycling's most prestigious race. LeMond has not enjoyed the public stature that might be expected of such a figure, though, in large part because of his contentious relationship with Armstrong. In 2001, LeMond openly criticized Armstrong for his affiliation with Dr. Michele Ferrari, who is now banned for life from the sport.

Armstrong subsequently began a campaign of disparagement against LeMond that included souring LeMond's business relationship with the Trek bike company. Armstrong's influence led Trek to drop its long time sponsorship of LeMond. SI caught up with LeMond's wife, Kathy, to discuss her and Greg's impressions from part one of the Oprah/Armstrong interview. SI: Now Greg is the only American winner of the Tour de France. LeMond: Right now, honest to God, Greg is embarrassed. He has said in the last few months, it's embarrassing to say I'm the Tour de France winner. That's how horrible this sport has become. I think it's changing, I really do, but with [UCI leaders Hein] Verbruggen and [Pat] McQuaid in there, it's impossible. SI: So you just had a journalist from your local paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune , walk up to the door today. LeMond: The reporter said, 'For 10 years, I thought Greg was crazy.' There's a whole generation that thinks Greg is a whiner. I'm sorry, Greg's statement is the truest statement of all time. It is the greatest fraud.

[LeMond said of Armstrong's Tour victories after surviving cancer: "If Lance's story is true, it's the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If it's not, it's the greatest fraud."] SI: Do you think Greg's reputation will be restored to some people now after Armstrong's admission? LeMond: I think it will be somewhat. But when you feel badly about somebody for 10 years, it's still hard to change your mind. I think there still might be some 'ick' factor that clings to Greg, just because there was so much icky stuff written about him. SI: Has Greg received any apologies? LeMond: Yeah, one of the board of directors of Tailwind Sports -- I shouldn't name his name. He wrote an email apology. But I think that's just because he's worried about [the Justice Department joining the whistleblower lawsuit]. I don't buy it for a minute. That happened last week, and Greg's like, 'Oh, OK, 12 years later. OK, DOJ coming down on ya'?' SI: So you said that you spoke with Betsy Andreu just after Armstrong called her on the Sunday before he taped with Oprah.

So Betsy was calling because Lance wanted to talk to Greg? LeMond: I guess I spoke to Betsy just after Lance called her. She said, 'Are you sitting down?' She said, 'Lance called me,' and she started sobbing. At one point they [Betsy and Frankie Andreu, Armstrong's teammate] liked him. They were friends. It's totally different for Betsy and Frankie. I can't even imagine. SI: So Armstrong wanted to call you and Greg? LeMond: Betsy asked if Lance could call, and Greg said, 'I don't want to hear from him ... right now.' We particularly didn't want to be manipulated because we knew that he was taping [with Oprah] the next day, and I really didn't want to hear on Oprah, 'Oh yes, I called Greg and Kathy and we're all good now.' That's impossible. SI: Betsy said between her 2005 testimony -- in which she said Armstrong had admitted to doping -- and last Sunday, she had not once talked with Lance. When was the last time you or Greg talked to him? LeMond: When he threatened us. The last phone call was 2001.

SI: So you and Greg didn't want to take his call now and see what he had to say? LeMond: Well, we were never friends. Christmas of '98 was the start of his trying to get in our good graces. He and Kristin [Armstrong] were together, just married I think, and we got a call, and Kristin's mother was inviting us to Christmas Eve mass at our local Catholic church. And she was very sweet, but it was clear to me that she thought we were close with Lance. ... You could've knocked me over with a feather. We did not have a good relationship with Lance. SI: Not long after that, Kristin and Lance Armstrong brought up to you and Greg at a dinner that he was going to win the 1999 Tour, which he did. LeMond: When we got in the car on the way home and said, 'Oh my God, do you think they have any idea? ... How could he think he was going to win the Tour when he only finished once?' He just wasn't a Tour rider. So driving home we felt really sorry for him. He must feel pressure with his new wife and family to make a name for himself.

SI: But Greg did become friendly with Lance to a point, right? LeMond: They tried to befriend us many times over the next year and a half, and it worked. It made Greg not speak out [about Armstrong's doping] as soon as he would have otherwise. SI: So Armstrong threatened you and Greg in 2001, when Greg spoke out and said he thought Lance was doping. LeMond: That call is embedded in my and Greg's heads. It was a life-changing thing and we knew it at the time. SI: What was it like? LeMond: Terrified. Terrified. I don't know if you've talked to other people who have gotten that call. But [Armstrong] is crazy angry. He is screaming. He gets out of control. I mean, he threatens in a way ... he said to Greg that he would find 10 guys to come out and say that Greg had used EPO to win in his career. He was convinced that Greg could never have won clean.

He was like, 'come on, you used EPO, everyone used EPO.' Greg said, 'I did not use EPO!' And he said he'd find 10 guys to say Greg did. SI: You and others have said Armstrong and associates aggressively pursued information about Armstrong's detractors. LeMond: Today I tweeted out [columnist] George Vecsey's quote where Lance said to him that 'I can get into your emails, I can get into your phones, I know what you're doing at all times.' He's had us followed. SI: What did you and Greg make of the part one of the Oprah interview? LeMond: It's all about how he can forward himself. This is not authentic. If this were authentic, he would ask to talk to us and ask, 'What can I do to heal you? I really hurt you.' SI: Are you convinced by anything in his sort of general admission of mistakes? LeMond: No. No. Honestly, I don't feel that he's even in there. I do believe he's embarrassed, kind of.

One of our lawyers has a house in Hawaii just down from Lance and I talked to him a couple days ago and he said every other year he's been there he sees Lance out riding with locals and everybody's kind of excited. Now he said he's never with anybody out on the road. He's by himself. ... I think it's hit him. People don't want to be near him. He's become a pariah. I think he's flailing, but I don't have any reason to believe what he's saying is true. The parts I know of what he's saying aren't true! Or only partially true. SI: How does Greg feel? LeMond: He's so angry that Lance didn't have the decency to apologize to Betsy and Emma [O'Reilly]. That was the bare minimum on trying to repair the personal damage he's done in the last decade. SI: What about apologizing to Greg? LeMond: If I don't hear something tonight, I'm going to be really upset. I spoke with Oprah's people and I would hope that they would ask that, because Lance did terrible damage to Greg's reputation. He is owed an apology.

The things he's said, 'Greg's an alcoholic, Greg's a drunk.' I had a reporter tell me one time, the guy called me and asked if Greg's a heroin addict. ...I want him to address what he's done to Greg. He didn't have any problem saying the horrible things to the whole entire world. SI: It's thought that Greg's brand with Trek would have been worth tens of millions if Armstrong had not pushed to have Trek drop Greg. LeMond: Do you know what a loss that was for us? We lost our income. We lost our company. Greg lost his reputation. SI: Do you think Greg will eventually take Armstrong's call? LeMond: Why would he want to? I mean, if Lance will actually say to him, 'Yes, I hacked your e-mails. Yes, I had someone following you. Yes, we taped you.' He has hounded us and harassed us. SI: USADA head Travis Tygart recently talked on television about getting death threats. Did you get hate mail when Greg spoke out? LeMond: It's absolutely terrifying.

The fans, you get letters that say, ya know, 'you better not be riding your bike by yourself on the road.' It's scary. SI: Can this admission help the sport? LeMond: He hasn't told one thing about how he did it and how we can help this never happen again. We need to know. Who is paid off? How do you do it? Why isn't he sitting down with [WADA's] David Howman and John Fahey and [USADA's] Travis Tygart. I thank God for Travis Tygart. The courage that man has shown. I think people don't understand -- when he said on 60 Minutes that somebody talked about putting a bullet through his head -- what that's like. SI: Greg also spoke out saying that he was glad Jan Ullrich was penalized for doping. LeMond: [Greg and I] were in Cape Town, South Africa doing a charity ride. Probably a month [earlier] Ullrich had gotten banned and Greg said, 'Great, fantastic, the guy's a doper. We gotta get him out of there. He shouldn't be able to compete.' [Ullrich] asked if we could have a beer together!

And we talked, and everything was fine. That's really how it should be. He knows he cheated. He got caught. The riders that cheated and know it and have a conscience, when they're with Greg, they know that they didn't do it the right way. SI: What do you and Greg expect to see tonight? LeMond: Tonight I think we'll see him crying for himself. I think that's probably going to come with things that he's lost personally. Like money, and power. But I truly don't see him crying over 'How could I have done this to people?' It will be just, 'I have personality flaws.' What does that mean? MURPHY: LeMond Bikes Return for 2014 | Bicycling LeMond Bikes Return for 2014 Commemorative bikes are just the first offering, says former Tour de France winner Joe Lindsey September 20, 2013 Greg LeMond was all smiles as he introduced his revived bike line at Interbike. (Joe Lindsey) Bicycling may earn commissions on products that are independently selected by our editorial team.

Your Privacy Rights Canadian Customers After several years away from the bike industry, Greg LeMond is back. The three-time Tour de France winner used the first day of the annual Interbike trade show to announce his return to making bikes with a series of commemorative designs made by Time. The bikes themselves are, LeMond said, just the start. “I’m really excited to be back in the bike industry,” he said, adding that he has “a number of new projects next year,” including more road, cyclocross, and possibly gravel-road models. In many ways, the biggest news was the return of LeMond himself. The LeMond Bikes brand endured struggles early in its life including a near-death experience in its first iteration. It found stability with a 15-year license to Trek and grew to be a major line, but the partnership began to go bad when LeMond first questioned whether Trek-sponsored Lance Armstrong was racing clean. LeMond alluded to that when he said he’d waited to come back because he was “a little burned out by some battles I had in the bike industry. ” These included an acrimonious battle with Trek, which stemmed from Armstrong and LeMond’s soured relationship.

In 2010, Trek announced it would cease producing the LeMond bike line, and LeMond’s presence in the bike industry was limited to a separate line of wind trainers. Now, LeMond has revived his eponymous brand and the hyperkinetic ex-racer is clearly pouring his energy into the new venture. Time isn’t just the company making Greg’s bikes; he purchased Time Sport USA and will take over US distribution of that company’s line of frames, bikes, and components, rekindling a relationship that goes back decades to when one of Time’s founders, Jean Marc Geaugneaud, was an engineer at Look, the bike sponsor for LeMond’s la Vie Claire team. The bikes themselves are a kind of road-race hybrid, using the existing front end of Time’s NXS model, an endurance gran fondo-style frame, with a rear triangle that emphasizes some of LeMond’s signature preferences in frame design, like a geometry that puts the rider in a long, relatively low position. The Tour 90 is made by Time, one of the few bike makers in the world to control its carbon frame production from raw thread to finished product.

(Joe Lindsey) The three new models are limited editions and different only in cosmetics. Each honors one of LeMond’s three Tour wins (they’re called, fittingly, the Tour 86, Tour 89, and Tour 90), with graphics that recall his teams from those years, especially the Piet Mondrian-inspired La Vie Claire team of 1986. Pricing is commensurate with a limited-edition model. Framesets (frame, fork, headset, seatpost) sell for $4,500, and complete bikes (all with Campagnolo components) sell for $7,500 (Chorus); $10,000 (Record); $11,000 (Record 80th Anniversary group); and $12,000 (Record EPS). There are six sizes, from XXS–XL.

Interview: LeMond on His New Bikes Greg LeMond rejects calls for Lance Armstrong’s life ban to be reduced | Sport | The Guardian Greg LeMond rejects calls for Lance Armstrong’s life ban to be reduced • ‘If there’s anybody who deserves a ban, it’s this guy’ • ‘He took 10 years out of my life’ says American rival The multiple Tour de France winners Lance Armstrong, left, and Greg Lemond, pictured in Portsmouth in 1994, were to fall out later in their careers. Photograph: Laurent Rebours/Associated Press Guardian sport and Associated Press Thursday 22 January 2015 05.06 EST Last modified on Monday 4 April 2016 09.53 EDT Close This article is 1 year old Greg LeMond has rejected calls for Lance Armstrong’s life ban to be reduced, saying: “If there’s anybody who deserves a ban, it’s this guy.” LeMond told a news conference in Adelaide, where he is attending the Tour Down Under cycling race, that Armstrong’s doping activities “took a good 10 years out of my life”.

He said the seven-times Tour de France winner was punished not just for doping but for the way he treated people who accused him before he finally admitted his guilt. “I believe everyone deserves a second chance but it’s like he was positive one time, admitted it and said he was sorry. It’s repeated cover-ups. There’s nothing like it in the history of cycling.” LeMond, the 1986, 1989 and 1990 Tour champion, fell out with Armstrong when he began raising doubts about whether his compatriot was racing clean. Armstrong eventually admitted to doping in an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2013. “We had a decent relationship, but since 2001 we’ve not had any relationship. I’m not one that holds a grudge but I’m also realistic with who I’m dealing with and he’s not really shown any remorse for what he’s done,” LeMond said. “That’s not about doping but about what he’s done to people’s lives, destroyed them.

He took a good 10 years out of my life.” Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by the UCI, the sport’s governing body, in 2012 after the US Anti-Doping Agency accused him in its “reasoned decision” of running “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen” while at US Postal Service. “If anyone deserves a life ban … Ben Johnson got a life ban in 1988 and relative to that he wasn’t involved in the conspiracy to cover up stuff. I don’t think there’s ever been a cyclist who has ever been involved in that level of deception. It’s unfortunate,” LeMond said. Asked if Armstrong’s ban should be reduced, LeMond said: “What’s the point, so he can race amateur races? He can do his own races. If there’s anyone who deserved a ban it’s this guy. Otherwise what’s the point in rules?” LeMond also accused Armstrong of trying to force him out of the sport, saying: “Cycling was my life and it was a major attempt to make sure that I was excluded from it. Even from the Tour de France at one point.

“That’s pretty hard when you have one guy really focused on eliminating you. It was very stressful but it’s really the way he treated me, and I and don’t like being threatened or bullied, so I was willing to risk everything.” Armstrong confessed to doping on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2013. Photograph: George Burns/AP Chris Froome under fire from Greg LeMond as Tour legend wants proof of Team Sky stats, slamming marginal gains: 'When you hear someone say I eat better, it's bull****' | Daily Mail Online Chris Froome under fire from Greg LeMond as Tour legend wants proof of Team Sky stats, slamming marginal gains: 'When you hear someone say I eat better, it's bull****' Tour de France leader Chris Froome has come in for questioning There is scepticism in the cycling world at Team Sky's achievements Greg LeMond became the highest-profile within the sport to comment Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond has become the highest-profile cyclist to comment on suspicions over Team Sky and Chris Froome's success. Froome, barring catastrophe, should win his second Tour on the Champs-Elysees this weekend.

But he was spat on by a spectator during Friday's stage and has also come under fire from French sports physiologists who suggested his power data earlier in the Tour possibly pointed to cheating. Chris Froome holds the overall lead heading into the weekend finale of the Tour de France Three-time champion Greg LeMond has become the highest-profile to comment on Team Sky suspicions Sky hit back with their own data refuting those claims and Froome insists that releasing all the numbers would mean revealing their methods and conceding a competitive advantage. LeMond accepts Froome's statistics fall within the parameters of 'normal human performance' but the American, who won three Tours between 1986 and 1990, still has his concerns with what he sees as Sky's ongoing lack of transparency. 'I always say that if people don't want to share stuff, they've got something to hide,' said LeMond. 'If they are too afraid to disclose a lot of data, that's bad. RELATED ARTICLES Share 36 shares 'It feels to me like the events of the last week or so, these scientists questioning the data, is the start of something and it needs to continue.

It needs to be the data combined with the blood passport, and you have to have people's natural VO2 max (the measurement of how efficiently the body uses oxygen). Chris has to be tested for his VO2 max. 'If they don't want to be under this scrutiny, they need to disclose everything. Otherwise they are going to have scientists questioning them for the rest of their careers.' LeMond, working in France as a TV pundit, also poured scorn over Sky's much-heralded 'marginal gains'. He said: 'When you hear someone say I eat better, it's bull****. When you hear them say we have beds, it's bull****.' Froome passes a British flag during stage 19 as supporters nearby encourage the 30-year-old

Question: With which sport would you associate Greg Le Mond?
Answer: Cycling