Greg LeMond
Greg LeMond
Gregory James "Greg" LeMondis an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Road Race World Championship twiceand the Tour de France three times. He is also an entrepreneur and anti-doping advocate. LeMond was born in Lakewood, California, and raised in ranch country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, near Reno. He is married and has three children with his wife Kathy, with whom he supports a variety of charitable causes and organizations...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCyclist
Date of Birth26 June 1961
CityLakewood, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I'm more optimistic about cycling right now than I've ever been.
Testing, we will never do enough of it.
It doesn't get any easier; you just get faster.
It is cycling as a professional sport that represents the problem. It can transform someone into a liar.
Sincere apologies are for those that make them, not for those to whom they are made.
Even good people are obliged to deceive.
I know too that we Americans like to think of ourselves as cleaner than clean, a healthy nation who would never take anything when a recent poll suggested that 65 per cent of the population would risk dying in 10 years if they would be guaranteed Olympic gold.
Racing is a very selfish, self-centred, self-glorifying thing. My wife's life for 14 years was centered around me. It was all about me. It was all for my ego.
When you get second place, you say 'I could have won it here, I could have won it there.' When you win, you never say anything; it's finished.
There are so many people who have died of cycling, and that didn't happen when I was racing.
More people should apologize, and more people should accept apologies when sincerely made.
I wanted to be seen as a good person, and never wanted to let people down, but I found it hard to handle the fame or adulation. I didn't feel worthy of it. I was ashamed by who I thought I was because I felt partly responsible [for the abuse] and I was never able to enjoy the stuff I should have been able to enjoy. My first thought when I won the Tour was: 'My God, I'm going to be famous', and then I thought, 'He's going to call'. I was always waiting for that phone call. I lived in fear that anyone would ever find out.
The key is being able to endure psychologically. When you're not riding well, you think, why suffer? Why push yourself for four or five hours? The mountains are the pinnacle of suffering
The problem with being a Tour de France winner is you always have that feeling of disappointment if you don't win again. That's the curse of the Tour de France.