The President of France wasn't the only VIP at yesterday's finish. American Greg Lemond was also present in Briancon. The first U.S. rider to win the Tour had completed the Etape du Tour the day before, recording a very respectable top-700 finish in the field of 8,500. Undoubtedly, Greg had wheel-sucked off of our own Martin Dugard and Rob Klingensmith (read about it in their active.com blogs) before dropping the two bloggers and heading out on his own!
Lemond has been making news lately, but for all the wrong reasons. It seems like every time there is a doping incident or allegation, especially one involving an American rider, the press calls up Greg for his comments. Lemond, who raced as a pro for 15 seasons and besides his three Tour victories was also Pro Road Champion twice, doesn't shy away from the attention and speaks his mind--something that both Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis did not appreciate.
Lemond's motives for his missives seems to be that he feels doping is ruining the sport he so loves and he wants to clean it up. But, others have asserted that he is jealous of the victories of others, especially Lance, who has replaced him as America's most accomplished cyclist. And in the bigger picture some wonder why he has to say anything at all. Why can't he just respond "no comment"?
Is Lemond doing a good thing or a bad thing for pro cycling, most notably, the popularity of the sport in the U.S.? Why does Lemond seem to be right in the center of every cycling controversy? Hopefully, in the near future, Greg will give a more concise reason for why he feels so stridently. With two sons in their early 20s who appear to be more interested in fishing than cycling, it is not clear that one reason for his behavior is that Lemond is trying to keep the sport clean for his offspring.
Greg was an incredible ambassador for the sport in the U.S., and his actions and results opened a lot of doors for future American professionals in Europe. I think a lot of Lemond's comments are spot-on. I would just like to know his motivation. Anybody else got a feeling on this?
Ever Upward,
Bruce
Active Expert: Bruce Hildenbrand
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Jim
Yes, Eolai, but there is a difference between being a victim of a crime and being suspected of perpetrating a crime. What bothers me is that GL used his alleged molestation as a tool, in an attempt to pry a confession from FL. http://...over the phone. This is dispicable in my book. No rape victim would willingly use their ordeal as a weapon to elicit a confession for an entirely unrelated crime.
"I was molested, so you should admit you cheated," is just bad logic and there is no correlation. GL has applied fault/responsibility without having to carry any himself.
There was no confession.
There was no blackmail/threat.
There was, however, a nice fat press conference waiting for him outside after he refused to answer in cross-examination. Convenient.
GL needs therapy.
Jim
in response to: Jim
I'm not sure why it turned "...over the phone." into a link.
catherine
in response to: Jim
You know Jim, you are the first person I have read address this topic so well. I myself survived abuse, and LeMond's use of that experience troubled me, but I didn't know why. Certainly the fall out during Floyd Landis' hearing confused me even more. I got distracted from my discomfort by the phone call Will G made to LeMond, and the reaction to these events in various blogs and the press. You have crystallized it for me: being a victim of a crime versus being suspected of perpetrating a crime. That is it exactly. Thank you.
Dane
in response to: Jim
No clue why he wants to be in the lead of the doping story in the US. It surely can't be good for his business. I wouldn't ride a LeMond now after hearing the comments Greg has made in public about Floyd or Lance.
It is sad watching one of your childhood heros turn out to be such a loser at middle age.
Merks on the other hand refused to comment on Floyd or show up at the circus with WADA and USADA.
Merks acted like the champion he as always been and refused to wallow in the mud.
But then Greg also whined about a lot of things in public during his days racing.
Best thing GL can do is get back on his bike (as it looks like he has) drop some weight and get a new perspective on what is really important in life. Bashing the guys who took USA cycling past where Greg left it isn't the right answer no matter their personal differences.
james
Greg had either as Bob Stapleton just replied Fight For A Drug Free Culture in Cycling or Throw Up Your Hands and Walk Away! I think Greg is taking the Higher Ground and Exposing the Shame of the Sport. Cheating is not acceptable on any level, family, financially, morally, or ethically. I too was a victim of childhood sexual assualt. Why Greg thought it was a good time to bring that up may be based on the facts that children dont like being cheated out of opportunites, to compete on a level playing field, or out of a healthy childhood. Cheating robs everyone out of their very right to exist and their dignity to compete. One out of 9 males and one out of every 6 females have been sexually assualted as children. Many of us are the walking wounded with a lifetime of challenges ahead including trusting, talking, and begin to feel again. God Bless Greg
Alex
Jim: Errr, not in complete disagreement with you. But what are you talking about - no blackmail threat? Maybe you'd like to share with us your interpretation of what you think Floyd's manager meant by raising the topic at all on the eve of GL's anticipated testimony. Or better yet, why, in your view, was the hapless fool fired in the courtroom?
Barbara
I"ve had the sense that GL wants to be the last person who won the Tour "clean." I'm all for fighting for a drug-free culture in cycling (and anywhere else), but Greg seems to be making a lot of assumptions about others when I don't believe he would actually know. I don't think we will ever know FOR SURE if Lance or Floyd doped, and neither of them is likely to have ever confided in Greg.
Ward
Lemond is so bitter. His accomplishments as an american cyclist racing in Europe in the 80s are incredible. He was a trail blazer in hostel territory. He could have won two other tours, perhaps, were it not for bad luck and team politics. So he's bitter about that, then along comes Lance and eclipes all his accomplishments, and then some. American cycling is Lance, no longer Lemond, so he's more than happy to run his mouth, and in my opinion, try to enhance his legacy.
The irony is that a large group of cycling fans HATE him. He is hurting the sport more than anyone. He's now synonomous with doping. When I think of Lemond, I think of him criticizing riders and doping accusations. I certainly don't think of his tour victories.
eolai,
in response to: Jim
"I was molested, so you should admit you cheated" - Oh for god's sake that's a ludicrous characterization of whatever the conversation between them was.
Assuming Landis had done nothing wrong, it still makes perfect sense that Lemond would suggest that keeping a secret - if there is one to keep - is damaging personally to the soul, therefore don't. And his reason for so suggesting being that an A test had been reported as positive.
It's not equating victimhood with suspicion, it's equating the guilt associated with the secret he (Lemond) kept with the possible guilt of a possible secret Landis might be keeping.
Guilty or not I don't consider Landis in any way to have taken cycling past what Lemond achieved. And coming out about his childhood abuse in adulthood does not make him a middle-aged loser in my opinion, it makes him even more a winner regardless of whether FL doped or not.
Why is FL insistent on characterizing the Geoghan phone call as a bad joke if FL wasn't responsible in any way? How does FL know it was a joke and not blackmail? And how naive are people who consider such calls on the eve of testimony as jokes?,
Mike
in response to: eolai,
And coming out about his childhood abuse in adulthood does not make him a middle-aged loser in my opinion, it makes him even more a winner regardless of whether FL doped or not.
You said it yourself...LeMond had NO business telling Floyd his deepest, darkest secret. It wasn't in Floyd's best interest to even know that about LeMond. LeMond should have told the public in a different way.
As for Floyd characterizing the call as a joke...do you know Will personally? Do you know what he considers a joke (whether good or bad)? You don't want it to be a joke and have predetermined that it couldn't have been a joke. Just like the media refuses to report on the science of the case, just the soap opera b.s.
Beth
in response to: Mike
I don't blame Greg for being ****** that drugs have ruined the sport of cycling. Read the book "From Lance to Landis" by David Walsh (published in 2007 by Ballantine Books) and see what he is referring to.
Theresa
Okay, we've got people on both sides of the issue, and in the middle. Personally, my feelings about Greg dumping his trauma on Floyd ( a person that he did not know personally), has dragged Floyd into GL 's life in a place He doesn't want to be! Greg shouldn't be shooting off his mouth about doping cases that he doesn't know anything about except what's in the press. Eddy Merckx is a fine example of a cyclist, who was the greatest we've ever seen; and he does stay out of the muck, and promote cycling positively. Greg is a whiner, sorry he was molested; but he still a whiner. It's not Lance's fault that Greg got shot and was out of cycling 2 yrs. And it's not Floyd's responsibility to carry around someone's baggage from a seriously traumatic event; when all he was asking was for Greg not to shoot his mouth off to the press about Floyd's case! Greg makes it really hard to feel sorry for him, and try to give him sympathy that all victims deserve, and, hey, what about this book he's writing??
eolai,
in response to: Mike
"You said it yourself...LeMond had NO business telling Floyd his deepest, darkest secret. It wasn't in Floyd's best interest to even know that about LeMond. LeMond should have told the public in a different way."
I didn't say any such thing myself - I made the case that it's perfectly plausible for GL to have told FL the way he claims, and that it makes sense to do have done so in the way GL portrays it. that was my reply to the original post; it's not a question of disbelieving FL, it's simply acknowledging that what GL said constituted a "concise reason for why he feels so stridently" And LeMond had little option in how to tell the public following the "jokes" of FL and G. His initial telling on the phone might not make much sense to you, but there isn't exactly an official procedural manual for telling people about your childhood abuse.
I haven't ruled out that the G call could be a joke - I've pointed out that FL can't know that it wasn't blackmail, so should be stressing that that's all it ever was. You're very defensive about things I didn't say.,
FF
in response to: Mike
"As for Floyd characterizing the call as a joke...do you know Will personally? Do you know what he considers a joke (whether good or bad)? You don't want it to be a joke and have predetermined that it couldn't have been a joke."
I know Will - He's classic Type A personality with ADD thrown in. He's as impulsive as **** and I can totally see him doing that. I think he doubts GL is telling the truth about the abuse. I personally doubt it myself. This alleged abuse occurred when GL was 13 and he doesn't remember if it lasted three months or a year and three months, but he remembers when it ended? Sounds fishy to me. Seems to me that GL needed some pr, and since the doping accusations backfired, what could have been more perfect? I mean, look at it this way - it's not politically correct to call bs on someone who is a supposed abuse survivor, so it's the perfect platform to sway public opinion in your favor. I can just see GL's PR Idea - "I'll play the sympathy card - tell them I've been abused - they'll feel sorry for me and never doubt me again. They'll forget all about how I stick my nose in everybody's business and make false accusations because poor little Greg has been abused"
BS I say.
FF
in response to: FF
One other thing... for all of you who believe that GL had to drop the bomb because it was being dropped for him....none of this would have been made public if GL hadn't been there in the first place. GL chose to have this "dirty little secret" exposed by INVOLVING HIMSELF in something that was none of his business.
Enough said
Eolai,
in response to: FF
"This alleged abuse occurred when GL was 13 and he doesn't remember if it lasted three months or a year and three months, but he remembers when it ended? Sounds fishy to me."
You don't seem very familiar with the impact of abuse. Maybe you could do some research about abuse, and while you're at it think about how you'd respond to somebody unfamiliar with FL's case stating it "sounds fishy" to them.
"I'll play the sympathy card - tell them I've been abused - they'll feel sorry for me and never doubt me again. They'll forget all about how I stick my nose in everybody's business and make false accusations because poor little Greg has been abused"
They? He told FL; he didn't tell "Them" whoever "they" are. FL effectively made it public, not Lemond. What you're suggesting is preposterous in the extreme.
"INVOLVING HIMSELF in something that was none of his business" Em, I think when you've won 3 Tours, cycling is your business. And always will be.
Are you not capable of believing Landis without being so zealous as having to trash Lemond?,
kathy
HEllo All!
WOW! Alot of interesting comments. I have been wathcing the Tour since the early 80's. I myself raced for many many years, and have seen drug abuse even at the state level. I agree with Lemond's effort to clean up our sport. The way he has gone about it has not been effective, but at least he made our sanctioning bodies open their eyes to the "big" problem. In regards to how LEmond has gone about "sharing" his opinions really is not the important issue here. Cycling as a whole needs to clean up her act. In all my years of watching the Tour, I have never felt so disappointed and heart broken. I applaud all those who are trying to make our sport "natural" again.
TO raise up another topic- if Rasmussen mes taken drugs- then why aren't they testing Contador? Did he not attack and pound Rasmussen in the mountains? shouldn't that raise some eye brows????? I am disquisted with this Tour. I hope that this is the beginning of the end of drug abuse for cycling.
kathy - san marcos, texas
Zip48
in response to: kathy
If memory serves me well, all riders are subjected to testing; unannounced testing. Rasmussen was tested 17 times throughout the Tour and came up clean in all cases. I might add that he wasn't dismissed from the Tour for taking banned substances. He lied about his whereabouts during a training session.
Greg
in response to: Beth
Oh man, I don't know how you read that **** by David Walsh. Everything in that book has been refuted.
Walsh wouldn't know a fact if it bit him on the face. Walsh uses as material for his book selected transcripts from
that court case that Lance won! Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy were both shown to be frauds. Look at both sides of the story. Lance was the most tested athlete in history, not just cycling. Every time you win a race, a stage
and every day you're in yellow. How many times does a guy have to prove he's clean? So what if he isn't Mr. Personality? that doesn't make him a doper. It makes him a better athlete than Lemond.
"Hopefully, in the near future, Greg will give a more concise reason for why he feels so stridently."
I thought Lemond had given a concise reason as to why he cares about this so much - it being caught up in his own personal struggle with the burden of carrying a secret from his childhood. There are interviews out there where he says as much - see the one with Paul Kimmage for starters.
The idea expressed is that he thinks any racer who may have been doping will do far better personally if they admit it rather than deny it and suffer the burden of carrying what he believes to be a shameful secret thereafter. So it's more a personal concern than a love for the sport.,