Conflict

LeMond follows the whole of the Tour in his motor home working for broadcaster Eurosport, providing analysis and insight into a sport that he freely admits he still has mixed feelings about.

“Cycling has been this emotional conflict in a way ‘cos it is a sport I love but there is this unethical part that is very hard to digest,” he says.

The conflict LeMond refers to has been a long struggle about which he is equally open. He is unequivocal that he is not bitter about his well-documented battle with Lance Armstrong and the associated commercial juggernaut but it is quickly clear from our conversation that while the wounds of the past may have healed, scars remain that are a constant reminder of cycling’s troubled past. LeMond, a vocal anti-doping  advocate, publicly criticised Armstrong’s relationship with Dr. Michele Ferrari in 2001, and so started 12 years in the cycling wilderness as LeMond was shunned from the sport.

A new dawn

LeMond did see a chink of light in 2007 with the change of leadership at the Tour de France. “I came back and did L’Etape du Tour with my son in 2007. We had an absolute blast and I met with [current Tour de France race director] Christian Prudhomme afterwards,” he says, explaining that Prudhomme was much more accepting of his presence compared to predecessor Leblanc.

But it wasn’t until six years later that LeMond had something of an epiphany. “I came back in 2013 for the 100th anniversary [race] and I realised that although my reputation was destroyed in the US it wasn’t in Europe.

“It was a great surprise. I don’t know how to explain it. You know they talk about public humiliation being one of the most difficult things. Then Eurosport got in touch with me to do something with them – which I didn’t want to do at first.”

But LeMond relented and started with Eurosport in 2014. Why? “It was a big void in my life,” he explains and adds that with all the personnel changes (and no doubt Armstrong’s public admission) he had started to believe in the sport again.

LeMond’s pace of speech starts to pick up as we start looking forward rather than back, although he is still keeping an eye on the action on the TV screen over my right shoulder. I am keen to move the conversation forward and to the future, but have to ask whether Armstrong has been in touch since his infamous public admission of doping in January 2013 on the Oprah television show.

“Armstrong has made attempts, but it is not what you think. Its a PR move, there is no remorse,” says LeMond.

“I say what goes around comes around. Usually people who treat people poorly end up getting stung in the back.”

Whether the wounds actually have fully healed is hard to say. But LeMond’s presence on the Tour does seem to signify that he has turned a corner in his life. So how does it compare being here as part of the media pack rather than as a racer?

“It’s not comparable,” he says. “When you are racing it is so good. When you are racing it is not just that you are physically ‘there’, it is the competition and then there is the atmosphere.

“But I am having a really good time because as a professional cyclist you don’t get to see much of France.” Over the last two years in particular he has discovered a new fondness for the country where he spent 12 of his 14 years racing professionally.

“Now some of the best people I know are French. To me they are very honest, they are people I want to be friends with and I can’t say that for every country. I actually trust the French more than anyone when it comes to cycling in terms of rules and ethics.”

Evidently there is one man in the pro peloton that hasn’t fallen foul of the negative aspect of race radios. “Sometimes when I see Peter Sagan race he is racing as if he doesn’t have a radio,” LeMond says, “he is very instinctive.”

Not only does LeMond believe race radios curb instinctive racing but he also believes they are the reason for the rise in crashes in recent years. “The idea that radios will make it safer hasn’t actually worked. There are more crashes than ever.

“I think they are a big part of the crashes. You have got to remember, these team directors, there might be 20 of them and I hate to say it, but I think there are only two or three that are any good. Everyone of them wants their team up front together, so now you have all 200 rushing to be in front. There is only so much space in the road.

“The reality about crashing is that it is like a kid with a hot stove, they touch it once or twice and you think they learn.” His point is that because the riders are under such pressure and being told to get to the front they ignore the lessons from previous crashes and plough on regardless.

“I can see why some of the riders are saying it is getting crazy,” he says. “In fact, I am amazed that it has taken the likes of Peter Sagan so long to say it is out of control.”

There is a real glint in LeMond’s eye as he reveals his opinions. His enthusiasm for a race that he evidently loves is palpable – it makes you under just how hard it must have been for him during his self-imposed exile from the Tour.