A Conversation with Greg Lemond


On the morning of Sunday, April 23th the Tour De Georgia hosted a media breakfast with Greg Lemond. Lemond won three Tours de France in 1986, 1989, and 1990. He also manufacturers bikes under the Lemond brand, which is owned by Trek. Greg was here promoting his new all carbon fiber bike. He said that his son, Geoffery, has only been riding for about 2 months but rode up Brasstown Bald. In Greg’s day, the lowest racing gear was a 42-14. Today, may riders use compact cranks to climb Brasstown. The hardest climb Lemond ever rode was the Stelvio in Italy, which is an 8-10% grade for nearly 10 miles and 6000 feet of climbing.

Greg Lemond was the honorary captain for the Briarose Grand Peloton, a charity ride before the finish of the Tour De Georgia in Alpharetta to raise money for the Georgia Cancer Coalition. About 250 riders were expected.

Will the Protour survive?
“The Big Tours are in danger of losing a little of their prominence.” The other question is that can “cyclists stay popular enough to justify the big budgets” of the Protour race teams. A Protour team’s budget is 8-10 million Euro per year.


What can be done to get Americans to enjoy cycling as a sport?

Greg said that there were a lot of challenges to overcome including so many sports to watch and too many different television networks. Increased road congestion makes it harder to host road races, and it is “impossible to duplicate what Europe has done.” He said that racing will survive no matter what and that US racing has gone through “lean times” before.

Random thoughts


Lemond said that 1992 was the first time radios were used at the Tour DuPont in racing. They were mostly used for calling for water or food, not team tactics. He also believes that technological advances will be made in increments based on the large leaps made in aerodynamics in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.