Greg LeMond

Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961) is an American former road racing cyclist.

LeMond won the Tour de France thrice and the Road Race World Championship twice, becoming the only American male to win the former.

LeMond's introduction to cycling came in 1975, thanks to freestyle skiing pioneer Wayne Wong, who recommended the bike as an ideal off-season training aid.

LeMond started competing in 1976, and after dominating the Intermediate category (13–15) and winning the first 11 races he entered, LeMond received permission to ride against older, more seasoned competitors in the Junior (16–19) category.

In 1977, while still only 15, LeMond finished second in the Tour of Fresno to John Howard, then the United States's top road cyclist and the 1971 Pan American Games champion.

He caught the attention of Eddie Borysewicz, the US Cycling Federation's national team coach, who described LeMond as "a diamond, a clear diamond."

LeMond represented the United States at the 1978 Junior World Championships in Washington, D.C., where he finished ninth in the road race, and again in the 1979 Junior World Championships in Argentina, winning gold, silver and bronze medals—the highlight being his victory in the road race.

At age 18, LeMond was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic cycling team, the youngest ever to make the team.

However, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from competing there.

Borysewicz, whom LeMond described as his "first real coach," wanted to retain his protégé through the next Olympic cycle and discouraged him from turning pro, but LeMond was determined.

Nevertheless, while he was the reigning Junior World Road Champion in 1980, LeMond received no professional offers, and so in the spring of 1980, he joined the U.S. National cycling team for a 6-week European racing campaign.

There, LeMond finished third overall in the Circuit des Ardennes before winning the 1980 Circuit de la Sarthe stage race in France, thereby becoming the first American and youngest rider of any nationality "in the history of the sport to win a major pro-am cycling event [in Europe]."

That victory, and the subsequent press coverage, raised LeMond's profile in Europe and he was scouted at his next event (the Ruban Granitier Breton stage race) by Cyrille Guimard, the Renault–Elf–Gitane team's directeur sportif.

After he returned to the United States, LeMond won the 1980 Nevada City Classic, considered to be one of the most historic and challenging professional cycling races in United States.

Despite eventually receiving several other offers to turn professional besides Guimard's, LeMond did not consider them seriously, and he signed with Renault in Paris on the day the 1980 Tour de France finished.

LeMond was an "exceptionally gifted" amateur rider who quickly established himself as one of the most talented cyclists on the professional circuit.

LeMond began his professional cycling career in 1981.

Two years later, he became the first American male cyclist to win the Road World Championship.

Guimard said he was impressed with LeMond's spirit, and told him, "You have the fire to be a great champion", before offering him a professional contract for 1981 with Renault.

LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986; he is the first non-European professional cyclist to win the men's Tour.

LeMond was accidentally shot with pellets and seriously injured while hunting in 1987.

Following the shooting, he underwent two surgeries and missed the next two Tours.

At the 1989 Tour, LeMond completed an improbable comeback to win in dramatic fashion on the race's final stage.

He successfully defended his Tour title the following year, becoming one of only eight riders to win three or more Tours.

LeMond retired from competition in December 1994 and was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996.

He was the first professional cyclist to sign a million-dollar contract and the first cyclist to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

During his career, LeMond championed several technological advancements in pro cycling, including the introduction of aerodynamic "triathlon" handlebars and carbon fiber bicycle frames, which he later marketed through his company LeMond Bicycles.

His other business interests have included restaurants, real estate, and consumer fitness equipment.

LeMond is also a vocal opponent of performance-enhancing drug use in cycling and is a founding board member of 1in6.org, a nonprofit charity that assists male victims of child sex abuse.

LeMond was born in Lakewood, California, and was raised in the Washoe Valley, a ranch country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range between Reno, and the family home about 2.5 miles north of Carson City, Nevada.

His parents are Bob and Bertha LeMond (d. 2006), and he has two sisters, Kathy and Karen.

LeMond grew up living an active, outdoor life.

Hiking, hunting, skiing and flyfishing were boyhood pastimes.

The ranch country of the Sierra Nevada mountain range lent itself to such pursuits.

A hyperactive youngster, LeMond believes these outdoor activities helped keep him out of trouble.

"I was a boy who just could not sit still. I had trouble focusing in school. Parents and educators then did not have the skill set to diagnose and cope with what we know now was a classic case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD certainly was not the frequently medicated childhood disease it is today. My triumph over the symptoms was found atop two thin tires over many dusty miles."

Said LeMond: "That's one of the traits. It's the inability to sit down [and listen] to something you are not really interested in and absorb it. If they are interested in it, people with ADD excel in really good ways. When I got into cycling I would say the sport itself took a fog off my brain. I was able to absorb stuff I read. It changed my life."

LeMond attended Earl Wooster High School in Reno but lived too far away to participate in team sports.

He soon biked almost daily to high school.

LeMond often rode home from Wooster, taking a route over Mt. Rose, along to Incline Village, then south on Hwy 28, then downhill to Carson City, then to his home.