Greg LeMond

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Lore & Background

LeMond was born to Bob and Bertha LeMond on June 26, 1961, 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 mi (4.0 km) north of Carson City, Nevada. LeMond has two sisters, Kathy and Karen. LeMond grew up living an active outdoor life. Hiking, hunting, skiing, and flyfishing were boyhood pastimes. A hyperactive youngster, LeMond believes that these outdoor activities helped keep him out of trouble. LeMond stated, '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).' He also said, '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, often riding 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. 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 the following year, 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, at age 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. In the spring of 1980, he joined the U.S. National cycling team for a six-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. Guimard said that he was impressed with LeMond's spirit, and told him, 'You have the fire to be a great champion', before offering LeMond a professional contract for 1981 with Renault. After returning 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.

Reader's Guide

LeMond's significance lies in his historic Tour de France victories and his role in popularizing cycling in the United States. He won the Tour in 1986, becoming the first non-European professional to do so. After being accidentally shot while hunting in 1987, he underwent two surgeries and missed two Tours, but made an improbable comeback to win the 1989 Tour in dramatic fashion on the final stage. LeMond championed technological advancements such as aerodynamic handlebars and carbon fiber frames, which he later marketed through his company LeMond Bicycles. He was the first cyclist to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the first professional cyclist to sign a million-dollar contract. He retired in December 1994 and was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996. He is a vocal opponent of performance-enhancing drugs and a founding board member of 1in6, a nonprofit for male victims of child sex abuse.

Did You Know?

• LeMond was the first American male cyclist to win the Road World Championship, which he did in 1983.
• He was accidentally shot with pellets while hunting in 1987, underwent two surgeries, and missed the next two Tours de France.
• LeMond was the first cyclist to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
• He is a founding board member of 1in6, a nonprofit charity that assists male victims of child sex abuse.
• At age 18, LeMond was the youngest ever to be selected for the U.S. Olympic cycling team, but the 1980 U.S. boycott prevented him from competing.

Career & Historic Firsts

Greg LeMond's professional career, which launched in 1981, produced a string of firsts that reshaped the landscape of road cycling. In 1983, he became the first American male to claim the Road Race World Championship, a title he would eventually win twice. Beyond the podium, LeMond broke barriers in the business world of the sport: he was the first professional cyclist to sign a million-dollar contract and the first to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. Respected journalist John Wilcockson, who covered the Tour for more than four decades, classified LeMond as a fuoriclasse—a rider of the highest elite. He retired in December 1994 and was enshrined in the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996, cementing a career that had repeatedly rewritten what was considered possible for an American in a European-dominated sport.

The Shooting and the Improbable Comeback

In 1987, while out hunting, LeMond was accidentally struck by shotgun pellets, sustaining serious injuries that required two surgeries. The accident cost him the following two editions of the Tour de France, a devastating blow to a career already defined by trailblazing. Yet in 1989, LeMond returned to the peloton and delivered what can only be described as an improbable triumph: he won the Tour in dramatic fashion on the race's final stage, reclaiming the yellow jersey he had first donned in 1986. The following year, he successfully defended his title, securing a third Tour victory and joining the exclusive company of only nine riders to achieve that feat. The arc from a life-altering shooting to a last-stage Tour victory remains one of the most remarkable redemption narratives in all of professional sport. It demonstrated not merely physical resilience but a competitive fire that even a serious injury and two years away from the race could not extinguish.

Technological Innovation and Life Beyond the Saddle

LeMond's influence extended well beyond race results. During his competitive years he championed technological innovations that would become standard in professional cycling, most notably the adoption of aerodynamic triathlon-style handlebars and carbon fiber bicycle frames. After retiring in 1994, he commercialized much of that engineering through his own company, LeMond Bicycles, which brought performance-oriented technology to a broader market. His business portfolio also stretched into restaurants, real estate, and consumer fitness equipment. Off the bike and away from the boardroom, LeMond has been a vocal and consistent opponent of performance-enhancing drug use in cycling. He also serves as a founding board member of 1in6, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting male victims of child sexual abuse, a cause that speaks to a side of his public life rarely discussed in the context of a former champion cyclist. Together, these pursuits paint a picture of a man who refused to let his identity be confined to a single sport.

From the Sierra Nevada to the World Stage

Born in Lakewood, California, in 1961, LeMond was raised in the Washoe Valley, a ranch country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada between Reno and Carson City, Nevada. His boyhood was defined by outdoor pursuits—hiking, hunting, skiing, and flyfishing—and by a restlessness he later identified as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He described cycling as the activity that 'took a fog off my brain,' allowing him to focus in ways school never had. At Earl Wooster High School, he biked daily over Mt. Rose. His introduction to competitive cycling came in 1975 through freestyle skiing pioneer Wayne Wong, who suggested the bike as off-season training. By 1977, at fifteen, he was finishing second to the nation's top road cyclist in the Tour of Fresno. National coach Eddie Borysewicz called him 'a diamond, a clear diamond.' After a 1980 European campaign in which he won the Circuit de la Sarthe—the first American and youngest rider ever to take a major pro-am race in Europe—he was scouted by Cyrille Guimard, who told him, 'You have the fire to be a great champion,' and signed him to Renault on the final day of the 1980 Tour de France.