09box

Lemond was great but he's not on the same level as Merckx.

79pmooney

Merckx was something else. 5 Tours. Won the yellow, green and polka dotted jersey in one Tour. And the only reason he didn't win the white young rider's jersey is that it didn't exist yet. He won both the Giro and Tour in one year and also either the hour record or the World Championship (I forget which). All 5 monuments. Multiple six day races. We talk about Lemond's hunting accident but Merckx's track accident was also not a joke. (Killed his coach who was riding the derny he was following.) Cause him pain for the rest of his career I believe.

Ben

RonH

Greg Lemond fan? Definitely not!!!

bikegolfer

Granted, he does give off a hollier than thou attitude sometimes, but I am starting to think that it is like that with all pro cyclists. The only elite rider that I know of that showed a little humility was Cadel Evans, but again, my age limits my experience and Armstrong has really left a stigma on pros for my generation

Dave Mayer

Cycling is unique among sports in that there is no debate as to who was the greatest ever. Merckx's record is staggering. It is unassailable. It will stand until the end of time.

Lemond is one of the greats. Anyone who wins a race as brutal as Le Tour is in that category. Even once. Lemond also demonstrated phenominal raw talent right out of the gate. He was winning races as soon as he put a leg over a bike. That has to be considered.

But for me, his bravery after retirement is what makes him special. Despite it destroying his businesses and almost his reputation, he went up against powerful forces to call out the dopers and cheaters. This will be his most positive and lasting legacy.

SouthFLpix

As far as physical talent, I think he stands head and shoulders above other American cyclists. Mentally, I don't view him as being as headstrong as Lance.

sdmc530

Read this and watched the 30 for 30 on ESPN documentary on him. Was actually huge fan until I saw the film He was so arrogant in the film I thought. Film didn't put him in the best of light I don't think. Was a great film though. However most super athletes have a bit of an ego.

Still great rider but not the best, top 10 for sure though.


Mr. Merckx is still probably my favorite.

scott967

I don't know about greatest, but for me, a 60 YO plus recreational/fitness cyclist I found LeMond very inspirational in his TdF years. I still have a VCR tape of his time trial that gave him the GC victory in 89.

scott s.
.

venturi95

Racing was different in the Coppi era from Eddy's, and the Merckx era was different from LeMond's, so it's hard to say who is greatest. I don't care for LeMond's public opinionating (is that a word?), but I worked with a former Tour rider from that time, and he said that when Gregg and Bernard were going at it, the rest of the peloton was barely hanging on. The two best riders on the planet, attacking each other and pushing themselves to the limit. Not for hours, but for days.

Lil Bear

Lance lied his a$$ off until the evidence was piled so high he couldn't see a way out. And I think you meant "stone."

Greg LeMond was an inspiration to me, and a great cyclist. Greatest ever? Probably not, but definately great.

Homebrew01

LOL !
Armstrong was dragged kicking and screaming into "confessing". It was known for a LOOOONG time he was doping, but he denied & denied, until the evidence was so great he couldn't deny any more.

He would have got away with much less penalty & scrutiny if he had not tried, and sometimes succeeded in destroying everyone involved discussing the truth of doping.

Homebrew01

A strong argument in my mind that LeMond was clean, is the way he and Hampsten started getting dropped by lesser riders as EPO swept through the peloton. If LeMond was on EPO, or anything "good" he would not have gone from Tour winner, to "also-ran" in such a short time.
LeMond said his training numbers in following years were as good as ever, but he found he suddenly could not keep up, and didn't understand what was going on.

Strange

There is simply no doubt that the greatest road racer of all time is Merckx. No one else so thoroughly dominated his era -- who else swept the grand tours, the classics, the hour record, the world championships, and a slew of track races? During his best years ('69 - '73) he had win rates from 33 - 45%; I can't even think of an athlete in any sport who had win rates like that. Christ, just look at his portfolio of records:

Most career victories by a professional cyclist: 525.
Most stage victories in the Tour de France: 34.
Most stage victories in one Tour de France: 8, in 1970 and 1974 (shared with Charles Pélissier in 1930 and Freddy Maertens in 1976).
Most days with the yellow jersey in the Tour de France: 96.
The only cyclist to have won the general classification, points classification and mountains classification in the same Tour de France (1969).
Most victories in classics: 28.
Most victories in one single classic: 7 (in Milan–San Remo).
Most victories in Grand Tours: 11

Seriously, who else even comes close?

mapeiboy

Jacques Anquetil , 5 times tour winner : you can not win the tour on mineral water alone . Greg Lemond beated Fingon ( confessed doper ) on the tour . Come clean with us and I will have more respect for him .

quicktrigger

No doubt LA, is......... I don't even have words for him. I'm well aware of that. But the hyper competitive world of top level cycling (and really any sport) selects for that very trait. So no surprise. He is what he is, but he did finally admit it. Highly pressured yes. But also, a great many more cyclist have been caught and still denied they were doping. NO different from LA. I think some of you are seeing my statements as excusing LA. Hardly! I personally think he is lowlife. If you didn't think there was rampant cheating, including LA, well I guess you don't understand the nature of people. PR or not, his recovery and winning (against all the other doppers) is still a great story that can be beneficial to others, especially those that are in dark medical situations. The later is what I give him credit for, and the fact that he was able to overcome near certain death. Does not make him so sort of idol. Just someone that beat long odds, and to show that it can happen. Again, PR or not does not matter if someone close to you is in a bad way. Nor do I care about the details.

Good riding.

bmcer

Then please just let the memory of him fade into the oblivion it so richly deserves.

mprelaw

Don't forget that the 30 for 30 was told from an American perspective. Yeah, Hinault was arrogant. Most of the great ones were or are.

mprelaw

You obviously have no understanding of the different performing enhancing effects of amphetamines as compared to oxygen vector doping via EPO or transfusions. Amphetamines never helped any rider go from domestique to GC contender. Fignon was actually self-medicating himself during a couple of his frequent bouts with depression. He admitted how stupid it was in his autobiography, as amphetamines are one of the easiest substances to detect.

bruce19

Oh, you mean after he tried to ruin the lives of anyone who tried to speak the truth and wouldn't go along with his lies?

bruce19

I might agree but, then again, no one else was either. But, had he not been shot and had he not given up his chances to allow Bernard Hinault to win his 5th tour he might have won 6 TdFs. We will never know.

bruce19

I have heard some people say that LeMond was also doping. Is there any evidence of that? I've never seen any but if there is some I'd like to know. Might change my opinion of him.

quicktrigger

Yeah he did. So have allot of others. LeMond was hired onto "The Beaver's" team, to keep him from riding for someone else, and then was double crossed. LA was no different than the rest. Elite competition in sports selects for that kind of behavior.

bruce19

He was very different in that he was a "hero" having "won" the TdF 7 times. He was an American icon and an inspiration to those who have had to battle adversity to go forward. Now he is just another cheat. But, even worse, a cheat who would stop at nothing to damage others. And, not just by trying to diminish their reputations. He went out to destroy them financially and personally. Aside from any talent he may have had in his sport of choice, and I would argue he had tons, he is a despicable human being. If others were as despicable, OK they were too. But, not all were. If you think by definition that all the greats were, then screw Eddie Merckx and the rest too. If you think about what it means to someone's life to be attacked by a person of means and the hell it raises with you and your family, it's easy to see that the guy is selfish, vindictive and a narcissist.

quicktrigger

Read my other posts. Yes LA is a lowlife and that is cruel to the lowlife's. No disagreement on that. However he still went from near certain death, to the top of his world. No easy feat no matter how you get there. That is still of value to those who are in a seemingly hopeless spot. How you choose to rise is about you. Again, anything that is so hyper competitive selects for those behaviors. Therefore those that see the winners as hero's, it's more about the idolizers than the "hero's" IMHO. One must be care who you trust.

FTR, I have been on the wrong end of the relatively powerful. I have also been in highly highly competitive science fields. Same things happen there. I have seen truly horrible crap pulled. I simply see them for what they are, and never moved them from that position. Sure there are some benevolent great ones, but nearly all fall somewhere between, and heavy on the bottom.

Strange

The thing you have to remember about doping is that the drugs don't ride the race for you. They may enhance your performance and give you a competitive edge, but they don't push the pedals for you. Very few people have the physical assets to average 25mph over varied terrain for 6+ hrs at a shot, day after day for three weeks. All the EPO in the world isn't going to turn an average rider into a TdF winner -- no amount of chemical enhancement will make up for the lack of a world class physique. The point being, even though doping is cheating, even the worst dopers still had to ride the race at an extraordinarily high level to win.

This is why I still think Armstrong's 7 TdF wins are worthy of respect. There is no question that the guy is a rapacious, egomaniacal, arrogant butt weasel, and that he did some truly unconscionable things to others. Nevertheless, EPO be damned, he did have the physical and mental assets to cross the line first. Would some random domestique, given the same drugs, have been able to win those races? Not a chance.