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Greg LeMond is a baller.
This was LeMond’s second World Championship. The first was in 1983. This photo is from 1989. Stars & bars. The image is already a famous one. It is one of my favorites. The man was (is) pure class.
Source: thegrupetto.squarespace.com/posts/?currentPage=2.
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True that.
Only guy in the pic clipped in, too.
Always leading the tech curve, LeMond was.
One of the first to ride a carbon frame too.
intensity.
how has sean kelly not made it into this section yet? criminal
I bet Kelly’s not there yet because the list is being done in countdown format…you know, like if Casey Kasem just went ahead and told you that “Billie Jean” hung in at #1 for another week right off the bat you wouldn’t sit through some Christopher Cross bullshit. Ipso facto, when we see Sean Kelly the list is done.
KT’s 2 pennies
The best. One of my favorite pics of all time.
KT, well thought out. really hadnt noticed a ranking or hierarchy with the baller submissions however. seems kinda random, so then kelly would come before armstrong at some point based on your system? kidding, armstrong is a candy ass.
Well, Kelly just did make it in this section although not quite the way I imagine he would have liked to. The fact that Lemond blew out one of the greatest sprinters of the era in said Kelly, after finishing off his total mental and physical destruction of Fignon in the same race speaks to the pure class of the man. Throw in the fact that he pulls all this off after winning the Tour and with all the bullets in his back…? Anyone who wants to argue who about who is the greatest American cyclist of all time only needs to know that at this point in the season, while Lemond going mano y mano with the greatest in the world, LA would be back home in Austin fondling his latest beloved “Mellow Johnny” or riding in some wind tunnel somewhere to make sure he gets another one.
It’s a shame we never really got to see Lemond at his absolute peak.
I loved the way Lemond rode and appreciate his passion against doping, but he has hurt his image with his constant personal attacks against Armstrong. These attacks, which lack concrete evidence, make it seem as though Lemond is just jealous of Armstrong’s results. And I’m not trying to defend Armstrong. If he is guilty he should hang!
Sean Kelly could still kick his ass!
When you do nominate Kelly make sure you show the photo of him celebrating Roche’s ’87 world’s win. Very classy!
Flat tired: No question Lemond has a streak of bitterness a mile wide. It’s part of what made him great. As for Kelly kicking his ass, a picture says a thousand words…
I just wish Greg hadn’t imploded his “brand” by peeing on Trek’s shoes. It has hurt the resale value of my slowly rusting Poprad.
I agree John. Great picture, great rider, he is one of my favorites. And I like his bikes too. Still loving my orange Sarthe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJSgzHTRg38
Hey Mikey, if you are actually selling, just curious about the size of your poprad?
my coach raced him back in those days BJ. i’ll see if i can get a scanned pic of OB toeing the line next to lemond. dominic shit himself when he saw the picture in OB’s cycling room.
Hack1 Says:
I meant Kelly could kick Armstrong’s “July only” riding rear end.
@Ethan— it’s a 58 cm, but sorry, I’m not selling, just being a smartass. I bought the Poprad because I wanted the disc brakes for riding in wet conditions. The 853 steel alloy isn’t very stiff and the bike isn’t very light, but it fits and rides well. And I actually make some effort to keep the machine dry, so it’s not really very rusty yet.
I previously owned a LeMond Buenos Aires, which was a fantastic deal at the time, but the bike was too flexy for me and would skip gears in the sprint or on a standing climb. Bought it for about a grand and sold it for $600 several season later, that worked out well. I know a couple of guys who run Zurichs, which is a really nice steel frameset. LeMonds were really popular around Seattle a few years back, you still see a lot of them out on the road.
Two weeks after he got the world championship jersey. my coach is on the left in the pink and white helmet.
Dominic shit himself? Like actually pooped his panties?
WTF?
…lemond definitely was a baller…
…cheap psychology will tell you some of his public bitterness towards armstrong was undoubtedly a subconscious reaction towards the whole peleton from the latter stages of his career…
…as one of THE major performers of his era, try as he might, he couldn’t perform up to his own expectations any more & he was pissed & understandably carried that resentment on his sleeve…
…later on when it came down to business, it became a giant clusterfuck with trek & greg was doing hisself no favors with his inter-brand attacks & the fact that he was told to ‘cease & desist’ may have ramped up his feelings even more…
…with trek’s divestment of the lemond brand, greg seems to have toned down or at least changed tact regarding his feelings towards armstrong & that’s a good thing because lemond, despite his personal thoughts about the guy, obviously loves & cares about the sport & as one of the ‘giants’ of cycling, rather than be mired in controversy, he needs to leave hisself open to admiration…
…greg lemond was a stone-ass baller…
I remember that race well. I really wanted Kelly to win it but had no complaints when Lemond won. He was a class act.
steveG
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Jens Voigt’s cast-iron ball could crush Greg LeMond.
OK, Freddy, I know all about the Jens Voigt meme and all, but you just embarrass yourself when you write shit like that. No doubt Jens is hard as nails and all, but there’s really no comparison between the two men’s palmares, and I don’t know how you can get harder than winning the Tour carrying shot pellets around.
@psychoch – Not much of a sense of humor over there, huh?
Of COURSE LeMond was harder than Voigt in his day.
Relax, man.
People,
Totally off topic but unfortunately I have no other way of doing this.
Merry Christmas to all of you & your loved ones, special ups to Big J for providing this forum.
Much respect to the ‘Elders’ like BGW & EJ who provide wisdom to those of us who came later.
Best wishes & happy new year to you all. (we, of course, are going to see it all down here first)
Is there any other measure of Lemond being bitter than his straight forward and honest approach to the issue of doping? If the doping issue is the sole measure then calling him bitter isn’t valid.
Does he make an ass of himself? Less than I have of myself and probably less most anyone who posts on here (the proof is in writing in this case).
Either way, one of the greats.
On my wall right now is a picture (blown up to 18×32) taken in the late 70’s at some nameless criterium in So, Cal. that shows me!!! beating GL across the line. Of course he was only 16 at the time, and was riding Jr. restricted gears, but hey!!, I’ll take it.
Looking at my photo on the wall, all these years later, he still had that INTENSE look as a junior that I see in the WC photo. In those days he was mostly coached by his father, Bob Lemond, who rode in the races with his Greg when he was allowed to ride in the Sr. races.
Bob had a tactic he used quite well for Greg in Sr racers in that he tried to keep the sprint late, to not allow the Sr. riders with our 52-53×13/12 to wind up. And in the short circuits we had in So. Cal, it was easy to do. So Bob would ride at the front for most of the last 2 laps and try to keep the speed fast but not too fast to lull us into sprinting late, only to be beaten by Greg as he charge by us with 200 meters. One day, I convinced the riders on the North Hollywood Wheelmen and the riders from the PAA to start a train with about a lap and a half to go (of course with me as the caboose). Worked like a charm and the 86 or so inches that defined the Jr. gearing ws no match for 110 inches.
As I recall, I rode a few training crits with Lemond (still a Jr) riding Sr gearing and he blew away the local sprinters like Jerry Ash and even Mark (Meathead) Whitehead another great Jr/Sr sprinter.
Lemond was a pretty good sprinter and I’m convinced he could have won a lot of classics had he put his mind to it and had the backing of his team, but Renault, La Vie Claire and Z all wanted a Tour Winner and never supplied him with good lead out men.
I think you would have seen Sean Kelly behind Lemond in a lot of Classics had this been a priority.
You and 10 adults ganged up on a minor and only beat him because he was at a disadvantage based on a rule…lol
Reminds me of the Seinfeld where Kramer is beating up children at Karate class
Sorry gang, but Greg is and has always been a whiner. Yes, he had an exceptional career that I joyfully followed at the time. Sure, he accomplished more than any modern US cyclist before him, including a couple outstanding years with so much shot in him that he couldn’t do a sit-up. But the guy was always complaining. Let’s not forget his public rain of tears (pre-accident) when he had to fend off Hinault for his first Tour win. Hinault was classless in trying to steal a second undeserved win from his teammate, but Greg should have kept his mouth shut about it in front of the cameras. And this is the same fellow who once belittled Merckx’s career (undoubtedly the #1 baller of all times) with the snide comment “The older you get, the better you were.” Ha!
Great cyclist? Absolutely! “Baller”? I agree with Freddy, Jen’s ball would crush him.
…i’d agree the greg was a whiner at times but he spoke louder & more eloquently with his legs for the majority of his career…
…he also helped usher in better wages for pro cyclists & while that’s not ‘baller’ material, it made it easier for those guys to deal with the suffering…
…hah !!!…interesting dichotomy…did the pay increase fuel the use of more drugs in cycling because suddenly there was more at stake for both the riders & the teams ???…hmmm…
…maybe this is ALL lemonds fault…
DJ: You call Lemond a whiner and complainer because he got tired of carrying Hinault’s ass and had the balls to publicly call him out on his own turf and then proceed to bury the Frenchman on the road? I guess he was supposed to just let Hinault take another tour from him? Judging from the look on his face in this picture and the 3 Tours, two Worlds, several high place Classics etc., racing for second place and kissing European ass weren’t his strengths. It is notable though, that according to Bob Roll (prior to him being on the LA payroll), Lemond was loved by teammates and was known for giving them a much higher % of his tour winnings than other grand tour winners. If I remember correctly from his book, “Bobke”, Roll dscribed Lemond as “caped in class”,and he wasn’t just talking about his talent on the bike.
Greg Lemond could lose both testicles and still have twice the sack that LA has. I’m just sayin’……
…i’d suggest the back n’ forth regarding senor lemond has thus far been reasonable discourse but i don’t care what anyone thinks of senor armstrong’s character or personality, comment #33 by david is pure unadulterated bullshit…
…& if i need bother explaining that, david, you need bother taking a deeper look at both your perspective & bicycle racing…
…then i’ll get back to you…
@Judi All those years at OU and all I got was to see Roberto Gaggioli at the other Athens Brick Criterium. LeMond at the OU gate is just freakin’ beautiful. Thanks.