SpiderMike

I would have to say that Armstrong is my choice over Lemond. Look at what he overcame, and he is a fellow Texan.

Other honorable mentions
Ned Overend
Eddie Viola ( Remembe Rad the movie)
and most of all myself

Tarantula

Nelson Vales. The Cheeta.

LittleBigMan

Even though he must have been drafting a truck or something,
I wonder how long it must have taken him to climb to 152 on a bike, truck or not. Going all-out for that long must have nearly killed him.

grego262

Armstrong

tourist

I f I recall correctly the bike was geared to a point where he couldn't pedal it until about 75-80 mph and had to be towed to that speed to even start.

ohsurfrider

"I would have to say that Armstrong is my choice over Lemond. Look at what he overcame, and he is a fellow Texan." SpiderMike

Lemond cheated death too. He still has lead shot in his heart lining. Lemond is still the choice of us roadies that raced in the 80s.

Chasbo

Without a bit of hesitancy, LeMond all the way. Dont get me wrong here, Lance deserves kudos as well, but look at both closely and its an easy pick.

LeMond raced against and was beating Hinault in the TDF before he was ordered to back off and support the badger for his 5th win. The next year when it hapened again, LeMond rode off to win the race with little or no team support. Most of the team had chosen to ride in support of Hinault! That alone is an incredible feat. Also considering he was racing throughout the entire year. Then to make the come back that he did after being shot in the chest with a shotgun (wouldnt you just hate to be his brother in law?), and suffering the beginnings of a disease that was slowly sapping his strength over the next few years. Yet he managed to win the sprint for the world championships one year and while on a 2nd tier team he won the TDF the next year and yet again won the TDF the following year before the disease and Indurain stopped him. That is enough in my books to make me a LeMond fan for perpetuity.

Armstrong is an incredible champion. His struggle with cancer was as great if not greater than LeMonds own stuggle. Yet LeMond was a winner before he was shot whereas Lance was at best just another decent rider in the peloton. It took the cancer to harden and focus Lance to the point where he became tougher than everyone else. I love watching him annhiliate everyone, in fact I just watched stage 12 where he crushed Beloki for the 2nd time in as many days. AWESOME.

theredgoose

Just my 2 cents. Armstrong is a great rider, but, LeMond is by far the superior rider. You can't base a rider's greatnest solely on the Tour de France. Armstrong bases his whole racing season on winning the Tour. In fact, it seems that the Tour and Worlds are the only race Armstrong does aside from other races he does for training purposes. However, LeMond raced in the spring classics, the Giro, the Tour and other difficult races. In each one of the races, he was a contender and he tried to win. For example, he's come close to winning Paris-Roubaix. 4th place finish, and then came 2nd in the Tour that same year only because he was told to wait for Hinault. Lemond placed third in his first Tour de France. Did Armstrong even finish his first Tour? To finish on the podium in your first Tour is truly a sign of greatness and natural ability. Plus, back in LeMond's era, the tour was much much longer and the mountain stages were much more difficult. There were more days in the mountains and the mountain stages overall had more climbs. And, you can't forget that Armstrong's Tour wins have come while being on a very strong team. LeMond's first Tour win was on a strong team that was supporting Hinualt, not LeMond. LeMond's second win was on a very weak team that had no ability to help him. In the end, it was a time trial that put LeMond on top of the podium.... Not team tactics. His third win was on a fairly strong team, but again, they didn't offer up a lot of help. And, we can't forget that LeMond had to contend with more riders Hinault, Fignon, Delgado, etc. Don't laugh at Delgado, he would have beat LeMond if he wasn't late for the prologue.

Also, lets not forget that LeMond was one of the first American riders in Europe. He not only had to contend other great champions, he had to contend with the fact that he was an American riding in Europe so he didn't get all of the respect that he deserved from the fans and other riders(example: The La Vie Clair team).

LeMond is a more diverse rider and he can win on his own. He can win the major stage races as well as win the one day events.

You can't base greatness on the Tour de France alone. If Armstrong wins 6 tours, does this mean that he's the greatest rider ever to live? Even greater than Eddy Merckx? I don't think so.