slander.
Trek gives LeMond the finger
- Thread starter ire
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Okay, this is what I don't understand.
Lemond is an eccentric legend -you can't take away his accomplishments. He is still happily married and active in his kids hobbies, which as I age have come to admire.
I won't compare him to the rock star riders of today, and he has pissed me off by sticking his nose in the Landis case, but all this hate on RM. Am I missing something??
Guess I should just stick w/my original statement that they deserve each other.
Lemond is an eccentric legend -you can't take away his accomplishments. He is still happily married and active in his kids hobbies, which as I age have come to admire.
I won't compare him to the rock star riders of today, and he has pissed me off by sticking his nose in the Landis case, but all this hate on RM. Am I missing something??
Guess I should just stick w/my original statement that they deserve each other.
The hate is pretty much internet wide of Lemond now a days.
Simple...
Him being a good father has no bearing on RM.
Him trying to destroy the sport we all love, unacceptable. He didn't slander Lance or anyone in an attempt to fix the sport, just his ego. he's a c0ckmunch.
He comes across as being mad that another American won the Tour, so it takes away from his prestige. I suspect between the lawsuits and his comments Trek was fed up; he was probably more of a liability than he was worth ($15 million in revenue can quickly be eaten up in court battles)
The LeMond-Trek relationship always reminded me of the Soviet-USA relationship during WWII. Let the bike cold war begin
Yes.
Lemond is a turdstain, and has been for years. Way before doping was even mentioned.
When Lance won his very first tour, Lemond came out of nowhere talking about how it was way harder for him to come back from getting some shotgun pellets out of his ass and win the tour than it was for Lance to beat cancer and come back and do it.
Year after year, he makes absurd comments out of nowhere. He cuddled up with the doping issue because that was an easy way for him to refill his hatorade bottle. He would always wait until halfway through the Tour, and start babbling. But unlike other people in cycling, like Slipstream, who actually want to clean up the filthy sport,
his words were nothing but bitterness and envy.
When talking of doping he always said things like "I think" and "probaly" referring to riders who were riding fast.
After Lance, it was Landis, he jumped in to testify but again, he didn't really have anything to say. No proof, just his fat ass thoughts.
And I am not defending either Lance or Landis here, I could care less,
but Lemond will say anything to try to position himself as the best American rider ever.
Indurain was a champion who went away with class.
And Lemond is a bitter blowhard hateful douche.
As long as Lemond is pointing fingers at others he should fess up to cheating on his wife back in the 80's as well. Any team member on 7-11 knows the story. Bitter old man is right.
Greg LeMond Suing Yellowstone Club, owner Tim Blixseth
Publication: Bicycle Retailer
Date: Tuesday, June 6 2006
BOZEMAN, MT (BRAIN)—Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond is among several people suing the millionaires-only Yellowstone Club and its owner, alleging Tim Blixseth tried to buy out their investments in the club at a fraction of the value and then refused to turn over financial records so they could determine the actual value, the Associated Press reported.
LeMond, his in-laws, a company they own, and a friend of LeMond filed the lawsuit in Madison County on Wednesday. All own homes in the exclusive Yellowstone Club, a gated resort-style community with many huge homes valued at $10 million or more.
The lawsuit said each plaintiff invested $2 million to purchase 1 percent of the Yellowstone Club in 2000.
Last year, Blixseth offered to buy out LeMond and the other plaintiffs, offering them each $1.25 million in cash and one undeveloped lot at the resort, valued at about $2 million.
However, Blixseth refused the plaintiffs' request to see the club's financial records. Since LeMond and the others are part owners of the resort, Montana law says that financial records must be available to them, the lawsuit contends.
edit -- longer version -- http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/07/business/ranch.php
Publication: Bicycle Retailer
Date: Tuesday, June 6 2006
BOZEMAN, MT (BRAIN)—Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond is among several people suing the millionaires-only Yellowstone Club and its owner, alleging Tim Blixseth tried to buy out their investments in the club at a fraction of the value and then refused to turn over financial records so they could determine the actual value, the Associated Press reported.
LeMond, his in-laws, a company they own, and a friend of LeMond filed the lawsuit in Madison County on Wednesday. All own homes in the exclusive Yellowstone Club, a gated resort-style community with many huge homes valued at $10 million or more.
The lawsuit said each plaintiff invested $2 million to purchase 1 percent of the Yellowstone Club in 2000.
Last year, Blixseth offered to buy out LeMond and the other plaintiffs, offering them each $1.25 million in cash and one undeveloped lot at the resort, valued at about $2 million.
However, Blixseth refused the plaintiffs' request to see the club's financial records. Since LeMond and the others are part owners of the resort, Montana law says that financial records must be available to them, the lawsuit contends.
edit -- longer version -- http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/07/business/ranch.php
Greg LeMond gets some respect
by Gene Bisbee at 11:21AM (PST) on February 6, 2005 | Permanent Link | Cosmos
While six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong makes an estimated $15 million a year in endorsements, the only other US Tour de France champion, Greg LeMond, has to go to court to get his sponsors to pay up.
At the time of his prominence, LeMond's victories were epic. In 1986 he became the first American to win Tour de France bicycle race after a bitter cycling duel with his own teammate, Bernard Hinault. He nearly died in 1987 when shot in a hunting accident, yet struggled back to win in 1989 in the closest finish in Tour history -- overcoming a 50-second deficit on the final day to win by 8 seconds. Then he won again in 1990.
These victories created unprecedented interest in bicycle racing in the US, and probably helped Lance Armstrong down his current path.
In 2003, LeMond filed suit against PTI Holdings. The New York company had pledged to put his name on the bicycle accessories it sold at Target and other mass merchandisers for 10 years, but had stopped after about two years into the contract. LeMond says the company explained that Armstrong had emerged "as the dominant American cyclist."
On Friday, the Associated Press reported a jury in St. Paul awarded LeMond $3.46 million in the case. Read LeMond's reaction -- he's satisfied -- in VeloNews.
by Gene Bisbee at 11:21AM (PST) on February 6, 2005 | Permanent Link | Cosmos
While six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong makes an estimated $15 million a year in endorsements, the only other US Tour de France champion, Greg LeMond, has to go to court to get his sponsors to pay up.
At the time of his prominence, LeMond's victories were epic. In 1986 he became the first American to win Tour de France bicycle race after a bitter cycling duel with his own teammate, Bernard Hinault. He nearly died in 1987 when shot in a hunting accident, yet struggled back to win in 1989 in the closest finish in Tour history -- overcoming a 50-second deficit on the final day to win by 8 seconds. Then he won again in 1990.
These victories created unprecedented interest in bicycle racing in the US, and probably helped Lance Armstrong down his current path.
In 2003, LeMond filed suit against PTI Holdings. The New York company had pledged to put his name on the bicycle accessories it sold at Target and other mass merchandisers for 10 years, but had stopped after about two years into the contract. LeMond says the company explained that Armstrong had emerged "as the dominant American cyclist."
On Friday, the Associated Press reported a jury in St. Paul awarded LeMond $3.46 million in the case. Read LeMond's reaction -- he's satisfied -- in VeloNews.
That makes no sense. Someone offered to buy, they're not "forcing" the sale, yeah?
Can't Lemond just say no?
Can't say that without seeing the contract. There may be some clause in there where the other guy can buy Lemond's share at a predetermined % of the overall value, or something like that.
Just because Lemond can be an ass doesn't mean that he hasn't gotten screwed over...
I agree, except that you don't need to sue to prevent a sale you don't want. The other guy would have to sue to force or enforce.
I could read the whole article, but I only care enough about the subject to make random comments on the internet.
As an investor he probably had/had rights to receive accurate financial records, regardless of whether there is a sale pending. Also, the buyer may have had an obligation to make a "good faith" offer, and the financials would help establish whether the offer was in fact made in good faith. This is all especially true for an outside investor (one who is not involved in day-to-day affairs or management).
This is one of the reasons Trek dropped him. Selling accessories at Target and Mass Merchants isn't exactly Trek's target audience and I guess they felt it brought down his name some.
This article is good too, http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/1174.html.
Its really hard to sell bikes when the spokesperson for the line is engaged in a continuous barrage of negative statements about bike racing, said Mike Jacoubowsky, owner of Chain Reaction Bicycles in Redwood City, California.
Jacoubowsky felt as though a weight had been lifted. It is with some relief that I no longer have to be concerned with Trek reps coming into the store saying I need to do a better job supporting the line. Just as it is a relief that I will no longer have to engage customers in conversations about doping that are counterproductive to my business, he said.
Bashing cycling when you're trying to sell your own bikes isn't a very good marketing strategy.
I am still on the fence about a lot of this, and Lemond is definitely coming across as a douche, but this seems like an unfair oversimplification. Lemond is bashing doping in the professional peloton, not all of cycling. It may or may not be hypocritical, it may or may not be sour grapes, and it may or may not be based on any real evidence, but some would argue that he is doing what he is doing precisely because he loves cycling - exposing the problem is a first step in solving the problem. And some (like Slipstream, for just one example) would argue that bashing doping IS good marketing.
It seems that Trek didn't have a real problem with him railing against doping. It's just when he went after their goose with the golden eggs that they got ticked.
That second article Wumpus posted makes it seem to be a large percentage of sour grapes and ego. I'm pretty sure very little of it is due to his love for the sport.
Lemond has balls. Two of them.
You can run a business based on principle, or you can run a business based on trying to sell product.
You can't expect people to believe in your integrity when you recant statements in 2001 to further your business goals and them keep bringing them back up when it suits you.
You can't expect people to believe in your integrity when you recant statements in 2001 to further your business goals and them keep bringing them back up when it suits you.
Interesting timing:
http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/1179.html
http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/1179.html
Very interesting info here:
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/whos-next-searching-for-lemonds.html
The first part anyway...
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/whos-next-searching-for-lemonds.html
The first part anyway...