Greg LeMond

Greg LeMond, born in 1961, American cyclist and three-time winner of the prestigious Tour de France race (1986, 1989, 1990). Born in Los Angeles, LeMond grew up in Nevada and began competitive cycling as a teenager. In 1978, at the junior world championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he won an unprecedented three medals—a gold, a silver, and a bronze. In 1980 LeMond began racing professionally, first in Europe. He returned to the United States in 1981 and again in 1985 to race in the Coors Classic stage race from San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, winning both times. He won the professional world-championship road race in 1983 in Altenrhein, Switzerland, and again in 1989 in Chambéry, France. In 1992 he won the Tour de Trump (now the Tour DuPont), a stage race held annually in the northeastern United States.

LeMond is best known for his performance in the grueling Tour de France cycling race. In his first attempt in 1984 he finished third, the best showing for a non-European cyclist up to that time. In 1986 he became the first American to win the Tour de France. A near-fatal hunting accident in 1987 left him with severe injuries that threatened to end his career. Nevertheless, LeMond continued cycling competitively and was able to compete in the 76th Tour de France in 1989, a 23-day race from Luxembourg to Paris that covered more than 3200 km (more than 2000 mi). LeMond won by only eight seconds, the closest margin of victory ever posted in the Tour de France. He repeated his triumph in 1990. Affected by a rare, progressive muscle disorder, LeMond retired from road racing in 1994.