I found this old magazine bio of LeMond from 1995, in which his wife says his bike was "messed with" before one of the time-trials in '86, causing him to crash.

True?

that photo is from the 89 Tour.

Fignon, Rooks, Lemond, Theunisse (obscured), Millar.

The only reason Greg crashed in the last time trial is because he was going too fast into the turn..

Hinault almost crashed on the exact same turn..

lemond was a little paranoid but then again he was being attacked by a teammate for that whole tour when the year before he was promised help from Hinault..

Just a little!!! he he...

She must have been listening to Greg. According to Greg, he would have won every race he ever entered except for:

- bad coaches

- bad teams

- treacherous team members

- the wind and weather (the wind only blew against Greg)

- the course was too short, or too long, too flat, or too hilly

- the weather was too hot or too cold

- defective equipment

- poor health (due to poor treatment from doctor's)


According the former coaches and team members, Greg would have won a few more races if:


- he did not spend his off-season pigging out with ice cream, pizza, and tacos

-he stopped showing up in March twenty pounds overweight

- he knew how to be an effective member of a team

- he avoided "hobbies" such as golf, sking, and hunting with numbskull relatives who confused "a duck" with "a brother-in-law" --- a "brother-in-law" is the chubby guy with pizza stains on his shirt

After retiring from racing, Greg's list of excuses for the races he losts gets "more complex" with age, just as with other "fine whines".


What I admire about Jan Ullrich is that Jan wastes his talent as freely as Greg wasted his...Jan also has never walked away from an "all you can eat buffet", yet Jan never blames anyone except himself when he loses a race.

LeMond was obviously a freak of a talent, winning the first 11 races he ever entered, and, as a 17 year old in '78, won 29 of 60 races.

Didn't he win the Tour de Bisbee at 16???? WTF's up wit dat??

When he was fifteen at the Tour of Fresno, using junior gearing, he lost a time trial by only 10 seconds to the then U.S. TT champion, John Howard!

Did he have more natural talent than Armstrong? Did Armstrong have such a dominant junior career? I think he started later though, didn't he?

Lemond had more talent than Lance, but Lance used his talent with an amazing work ethic, to win all his tours..

If Lemond worked as hard as Lance he would of at least won 1 more tour as well as other races..

Armstrong wasn't racing as a junior but was a nationally ranked junior triathlete..

<<I found this old magazine bio of LeMond from 1995, in which his wife says his bike was "messed with" before one of the time-trials in '86, causing him to crash.

True?>>

No;-)

<<What I admire about Jan Ullrich is that Jan wastes his talent as freely as Greg wasted his...but Jan never blames anyone except himself when he loses a race.>>

I have often criticised GL in this forum but not about his wasted talent; do you mean he was lazy, or tactically naive, or what?

<<Lemond had more talent than Lance, but Lance used his talent with an amazing work ethic, to win all his tours..

If Lemond worked as hard as Lance he would of at least won 1 more tour as well as other races..>>

I agree about Armstrong's work ethic but have seen little evidence to criticise GL, in this regard. Which Tour might Lemond have won, if he had worked harder? On the subject of winning other races..at least Lemond entered other races- a pre-requisite of winning.

I believe that Lemond was a match for Armstrong......... and that Armstrong would have found competition in the 80's as difficult to handle as did his predecessor.
*

Lemond... He pisses me off- Always something with that guy...- He's crazy-

did LeMond have persecution complex? I didn't know that

I always thought he was another beloved American hero

I personally think Greg wasn't that paranoid but having his Dad with him all the time made him that way.. He later learned that his Dad was only interested in one person, himself.. That is why Greg fired him from Lemond bikes, he was just a difficult person to be around.

We have a feature here that allows you to quote someone in a manner that people will actually know you you're quoting. Try it sometime

Raiyn-

my knackered Mac doesn't do "features". I'm sorry if this offends you.

I guess I should have added the names of the contributors I was quoting, although it's the ideas that interest me.

Do you have any on this subject, or was correcting my presentational shortcomings the limit of your interest?

I understood what he was saying. I guess I'm in too many email discussion groups. I didn't even notice that it wasn't the usual quotation format.