Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405010097
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But in 1983, LeMond was hard-pressed to even admit it.
"I could talk to any sportswriter in the country and they wouldn't have any idea what I was talking about," said LeMond, who at 32 is now in the twilight of a career that has defined elite cycling in the United States.
"I never, ever said what I did [for a living]. I'd just say that I was in the sports marketing business. I wouldn't say I was a professional bike rider."
But recreational cycling has experienced a boom in popularity - from an estimated 9 million participants in 1983 to 99 million in 1993. The National Sporting Goods Association estimates there are more cyclists in the United States than skiers, golfers and tennis players combined.
That prosperity has brought long-awaited attention to the professional realm of the sport. LeMond's three victories in the Tour de France, two world championships and a Tour DuPont title in the past 14 years have made him a household name.
Wednesday, he will set out to add another yellow jersey to his collection when the 11-day Tour DuPont, America's premier cycling race, begins in Wilmington, Del. LeMond, who won the race in 1992, considers himself the defending champion.
He skipped the Tour DuPont in 1993, opting to compete in the Tour of Italy, a 21-day event he and his team felt would be better preparation for the Tour de France - the pinnacle of pro cycling. It was in Italy that LeMond began a string of bad luck that would make his '93 season a virtual washout.
LeMond was forced to drop out of the Tour of Italy because of a severe allergy problem. Next, he withdrew from the Tour de France suffering from extreme exhaustion. The final blow came in late July, when he crashed and broke his right wrist during a training ride near his home in Medina, Minn.
"I tried riding through [the broken wrist] the first few weeks, but then we realized that it wasn't healing," said LeMond, who was off his bike for three months, the longest period since he was shot in a hunting accident in 1987.
"At least with the wrist injury, I could still train," he said. "With the hunting accident, my percentage of body fat went way up and my weight went down about 30 pounds."
LeMond came back from the hunting accident to win the Tour de France in 1989 and 1990. He said he feels his luck has taken a turn for the better again, and he has renewed confidence heading into the Tour DuPont, which visits the Roanoke Valley on May 9, Blacksburg on May 10 and Wytheville on May 11.
"If my physical abilities are there, my mental ability will be there," LeMond said. "There's no weakness in my mental abilities. But no matter how your mental ability is, you can't make your body go faster if it's maxed out."
LeMond said he's in good shape and has produced decent - "but not spectacular" - results in Europe this spring as the leader for team Gan, which represents a French insurance company.
He credits his current condition to a new training method that measures power output instead of more traditional methods that focus on speed and stamina. LeMond's training utilizes a German-designed system that tracks results using a computer chip inside the crank of the bicycle, relaying information to a computer mounted on the handle bars.
LeMond pointed out that he'll have to keep up with a strengthened peloton (the main field of cyclists), in part because of the mild winter in Europe and a change in cycling attitudes.
"A lot of it has to do with people paying more attention to training and diet," he said. "Nobody's taking the winter off now. It's like baseball and football, there's no off-season."
Cyclists will face a true test of conditioning during the prologue in Wilmington and it only gets harder from there, LeMond said. He described the overall course as "excellent and very difficult" and tabbed Lance Armstrong and Raul Alcala, the 1993 champion, as his strongest rivals.
The Tour DuPont features four punishing mountain stages this year, beginning with the Roanoke Valley time trial. LeMond, who usually trains in Europe, has spent the past few weeks in Asheville, N.C., site of the Tour's Stage 8 finish.
"I came to North Carolina because I wanted to see some different country and it looked like good weather," he said. "It's probably some of the best riding I've ever had in the U.S. . . . This is a very hilly race. It's not the Alps, but it's considerably difficult."
LeMond said he had not ridden the Roanoke Valley stage, but had seen the profile "and that's bad enough." He said there was a chance he'd be in town to ride it before May 9, but if not, he would preview it by car early on the morning of the stage.
LeMond said he put the Tour DuPont "right up there" with the world championships and Tour de France as events he'd like to win again before retiring. This could be his last competitive year if the injuries continue, he said, but one event is driving him to stay in the sport at least until 1996.
"I would like to go to the Olympics," said LeMond, who was a member of the 1980 U.S. team that boycotted the Games in Moscow. "If there was a dream, it would definitely be that."
An individual time trial - LeMond's specialty - is being added to the cycling events in Atlanta.
"It's an event I kind of excel in. And it's an event I could specialize in that year," he said.
LeMond spends about eight months of the year in Europe and is looking forward to the time when he can make his permanent home in Minnesota with his wife, two sons and daughter.
After the Tour DuPont, it's back to Europe to prepare again for the Tour de France, an event LeMond said he believes he still is capable of winning.
"I don't know. Given the right ingredients and circumstances . . . My physical condition is good. My only big question is I have yet to get my weight down to what it used to be. I have some weight I could lose," said LeMond, who said he's carrying 155 to 160 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame.
For now, however, he'll keep his sights set on the Tour at hand, training hard and staying healthy.
by CNB