A Bump in the Road : Greg LeMond, Who Is Out of the Tour de France, Has Endured a Difficult Year That Included Firing His Father From the Family Business
Three days before Thanksgiving last November, Greg LeMond went to Reno, Nev., with a heavy heart and difficult task.
He went home to fire his father from what had become the family business.
LeMond’s 2-year-old bicycle company owed more than $1 million. LeMond’s personal losses were much more than he had ever imagined. The three-time winner of the Tour de France had to make quick and irrevocable decisions.
Eight months later, the repercussions are still being felt.
LeMond, who turned 32 last week, has had little contact with his parents since November, although he says the wounds have healed. But the cyclist who last won the Tour de France three years ago has suffered through his worst season since 1988, when injuries from a crash sidelined him.
Bob LeMond, who once served as his son’s agent, adviser, confidante, fishing partner and president of the bicycle company, has returned to selling real estate in Reno.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the split, Bob LeMond said: “I’ve just got to get on with my life and that’s what I’m doing.”
OUT OF THE TOUR
When 180 of the world’s best cyclists start the 23-day Tour de France today at Puy du Fou near Nantes, LeMond will be noticeably absent.
The only American who has won the Tour will spend much of July in Medina, Minn., with his wife, Kathy, and three children, recuperating from the effects of an allergy and chronic fatigue that left him too weak to ride, according to Roger Legeay, his team manager.
Friends and associates who watched LeMond endure the downfall of the business said medical problems were not the sole reason he failed to start the Tour this year, although they played a major role.
“The family breakup didn’t help,” said Bill Miller, a sales representative for LeMond Enterprises. “A lot of times it can be psychosomatic. It wasn’t a very happy time for him. When he was trying to train last January (in northern California), he was thinking about it.” Said Jean-Pierre Pascal, president of LeMond Enterprises: “It has disrupted his motivation.”
LeMond was spending the week with relatives and could not be reached. This spring, he told Sam Abt, a writer from Paris: “I had a very bad winter in terms of stress. I . . . needed four more weeks of training--but I just didn’t have the time, once I started in December.”
One associate said he was so distraught that he quit riding altogether.
Still, most believed that LeMond would rally, once the Tour approached, because of his well-chronicled resiliency.
LeMond has rebounded from adversity before. He almost died in April of 1987, after his brother-in-law, Pat Blades, accidentally shot him during a turkey hunt. In 1988, he suffered a tendon infection after falling in a race in Belgium, and other medical complications made it impossible to ride. In 1989, he overcame Laurent Fignon of France on the final day and won the Tour de France by eight seconds.
Legeay said LeMond was not concerned with the floundering business once he returned to Europe last February to begin training for the spring season. He wanted to re-establish himself after dropping out of the 1992 Tour during an arduous stage in the Alps.
But LeMond never pedaled into shape as he had done for so many years before. When he dropped out of the Tour of Italy two weeks ago, his chances in the Tour de France diminished. A week later he dropped out of the Route du Sud in southern France, frustrated that his body would not respond to the grueling climbs and long stages.
Then it was revealed that LeMond suffered from allergies that affected his immune system. They became so severe in Italy that he had infections on his lips, mouth and throat. Allergist David Morris, LeMond’s father-in-law, said Greg is being treated with flu vaccine injections that help improve his immune system.
LeMond is taking a month off, hoping to return for the World Road Championships Aug. 29 in Oslo.
A FATHER AND SON DISUNION
As his career nears its end, LeMond would love nothing more than to concentrate on riding. But he cannot divorce himself from the tumult of the last year.
When he returned from a trip to Japan last fall with information that his business was failing, friends said he was enraged. Pascal, LeMond Enterprises president, said he told LeMond what was happening.
“They blew away over $1 million in one year,” Pascal said from France, where he now runs China Bicycles. “Obviously, that’s when I had to do something about it. It’s not fair on my part to keep quiet when I see so many blunders. You have to sometimes stand up and say, ‘Enough of this mess.’ ”
Pascal persuaded LeMond to turn the company into a marketing firm, ending the manufacturing of carbon-fiber frames. That segment had become a financial drain, although the $3,500 bikes were among the most popular items sold.
Fueling the bitterness was LeMond’s allegation that money was stolen from the company by family members.
Said Pascal: “It is a typical family situation where one is very successful and carries everybody around and there is a point where he gets tired of it.”
Bob LeMond knows he made mistakes, but insiders say everyone involved, including Greg, was culpable. They were all responsible, and all victims.
The company marketed high-end road bikes made of steel and titanium and manufactured carbon-fiber bicycles. It was a lofty goal, and needed expert management skills.
“It was bad that I had to be handling everything,” Bob says.
Although the pain is evident in his voice, Bob LeMond said he has not thought about bicycling for seven months.
“I don’t care to look at it again and don’t want to be involved with it,” he said. “It just doesn’t matter to me.”
It was his life, though, when Greg LeMond ruled cycling in the late 1980s.
Friends said Bob was overprotective and often went too far in helping his son. But he was one of cycling’s toughest negotiators and set cycling on its heels by getting the sport’s richest contract for his son after Greg won the Tour de France and World Championships in 1989. LeMond signed a three-year, $5.7-million contract with Z, a now-defunct French cycling team. LeMond is earning $1.3 million over two years with Gan, his latest team.
“I’ve always heard I have a bad reputation with people, but I was always trying to do what Greg wanted,” Bob said.
Bob said the bicycle company fell apart because a Japanese investor defaulted on a $3-million commitment. He said the company received about $800,000 and was unable to fulfill promises and expectations.
Without outside backing, Greg became the major financier, which he had never intended. Greg hired longtime associate Pascal to help his father find new investors and manage the company. But the two never got along.
Said Bob: “I know that J.P. was an inadequate person in all respects.”
Said Pascal, who is helping restructure LeMond’s company from France: “I’m sure they hate me very much because they think I’m behind all this, but I’m not.”
Pascal said sales of LeMond bicycles are brisk, and he expects all debts to be paid by October. Some suppliers are less than hopeful.
Said one: “We feel fortunate our losses are not that great. About five suppliers told us they are out more than $100,000.”
HIGH-TECH DISASTER
The company’s biggest shortcoming was its best innovation, the carbon-fiber bikes. Carbon fiber is a lightweight, durable material that takes time to assemble and is labor intensive.
Shortly after LeMond rode one of Craig Calfee’s carbon-fiber bikes in 1991, he ordered more than a dozen for his team. LeMond, whom one associate called “the Chuck Yeager of cycling,” always was on the cutting edge of bicycle technology.
Calfee, an inventor who learned the trade by building boats, had made a mold for a successful carbon-fiber bike a few years earlier. He was building a few bikes a month in a San Francisco warehouse when LeMond found him.
Bob LeMond bought the molds and moved the operation to Reno. He put his son-in-law, Blades, in charge of it.
“He was the only guy he felt he could trust to take it on,” Calfee said.
Bob was wary of outsiders and entrusted his family to management positions. But Blades’ construction background had not equipped him to handle the complicated science of carbon fiber.
Calfee said he was retained as a consultant, but was not used even when they had problems with the glued-on parts, such as shift levers and water-bottle holders. The parts had a tendency to break off and needed to be redesigned.
A few accidents were reported because of defective shifters, but Glenn Spiller, owner of a Reno import company that distributes LeMond’s bicycles, said all customers were compensated.
Calfee said he has since rectified the problem and will soon begin producing the frames in Santa Cruz on a small scale after buying back his molds.
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Pascal said he looks forward to the day when LeMond and his father normalize their relationship.
“That’s the goal,” he said.
When asked if he sees a time when the two will be closer, Bob said: “Probably.”
Pascal also is trying to slowly rebuild the LeMond name in American cycling. LeMond has said he wants to compete in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the first time pros will be allowed to ride. He is expected to compete in Europe for another year before concentrating solely on American racing.
Pascal is trying to negotiate a licensing agreement with Spiller, and there is talk of introducing a new line of carbon-fiber bikes built by another company. But old problems continue to haunt LeMond. “We don’t want to be the LeMond bike company unless Greg wants to be behind it and is willing to make a commitment for a couple of years while we re-establish the line,” Spiller said. “We can’t do it without him.”
Spiller said many dealers who handled LeMond products are skeptical.
“In a way, they feel burned,” he said.
LeMond’s presence as a promoter, marketer and designer could change that. Not only is LeMond one of the greatest cycling talents of his generation, he has the charisma to gain dealers’ trust.
“In cycling circles, the name of Greg LeMond is still golden,” said one industry insider. “Greg is the one who got burned. He is paying penance for Bob’s past dealings.”
LeMond also is taking stock as his cycling career rolls to a close.
Spiller said LeMond told him last November: “Although I made a lot of money, I’ve spent a lot, too. I want to make sure there is some left over when I retire.”
