Having owned and loved a 2000 853 Lemond Zurich, as well as a 1986 SLX De Rosa, a 1967 531 Paramount tiurer, an early 1980s Ron Cooper of mixed tubing and a 1978 Eisentraut also of mixed tubing, all I can say is that the Zurich is most decidedly not out of place in that company unless either TIG welding or carbon fiber puts you off your C&V breakfast. They all ride great, they are all a little different, they all look somewhere in the "really nice" to "OMG" range, and all are worth having.

The main thing I recall about the Lemond (it has been stripped won to frame-and-fork and has been sitting in my basement for six or seven years) is that it feels like you are on rails when descending. Since I also like to slide my backside back when climbing, I did like both the longer top tube and the slightly slacker seat tube angle. On the other hand, some of the other frames have significantly shorter top tubes and I enjoy the heck out of them.

As I recall, the Zurich, the Buenos Aires and the Alpe d'Huez are all the same frame and fork in a given year. The differences are (1) paint and (2) the compnents that were hung on them. I believe the Poprad was always a bit different and intended as a cyclo-cross frame (meaning more tire clearance, canti bosses, and a higher bottom bracket). The others were all based on Greg's road race frame geometry preferences. And the tales I heard floating around was that Lance got tired of Greg bad-mouthing him and wanted to stick it Greg, and since both were affiliated with Trek and Lance was the face of the main Trek line while Lemonds were a fairly small piece of the Trek pie - well, you do the math.