LeMond Wants to Join Cycling Team in U.S.
Tour de France winner Greg LeMond wants to leave the Belgian ADR cycling team after receiving a “phenomenal” offer from the 7-Eleven team in the United States, his team director said Tuesday.
Jose De Cauwer said LeMond wanted to break his contract--which does not expire until the end of next year--but ADR had yet to decide whether to allow him to quit.
“If he desperately wants to go, there are two possibilities,” De Cauwer said. “Either we tell him to stay and we start quarreling or we agree to let him go by mutual agreement.”
De Cauwer said that 7-Eleven had made LeMond an unprecedented offer, one ADR could never match.
“They are ready to pay him a phenomenal sum and they are prepared to go to the bitter end,” De Cauwer said. He would not specify details of the offer.
LeMond and his lawyers have visited Hein Verbruggen, president of the International Professional Cycling Federation, to discuss ways of terminating the contract but Verbruggen said it would not be possible, according to De Cauwer.
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