Peloton - August-September 2011

LEMOND
1986
CLASSIC

slow down to the point where I could barely pedal. I slowly recovered and all I did was try to limit my damages. I lost a minute and a half. A lot. I was happy I kept myself from losing more than that. I would have been out of the race. That day I lost a lot of time to Fignon. The next day he took some more time out; three days before I was 8 seconds down.

When we got back to the team hotel that evening, you could see that the car’s front bumper was gone, the back bumper was gone. I remember all these dents on it. Jose told me about how Guimard was trying to get up to Fignon, and Jose knew exactly what was going on, that I was not riding well. He did everything he could to prevent Guimard from talking to Fignon.

They were crashing into each other behind us. He kept him off a while the first time. When Guimard finally got around to talk to Fignon the first time, De Cauwer did everything he could the next time to keep him from getting back to Fignon. It probably saved my race. It was a delay of 30 seconds. It was great. That was the race that went on behind the race. The directors are watching the race, and they see it from a broader perspective. A good coach knows his rider and other riders too. Guimard knew me, because he was my former coach, and he knew Fignon, and he knew there was an opportunity. Had he not been able to get up there to relay the information, Fignon might not have attacked. He didn’t know that I was hurting even more than he was. That was probably my most memorable Alpe d’Huez.

1990: LeMond vs. the Little Old Lady It went from that to the next year, where I got second place on Alpe d’Huez. I think the most exciting part of that year’s race was when my teammate, Ronan Pensec took the overall lead from a break that got ten minutes on the first day. It was good for me, because I was able to ride the Tour without being in contention after the first day, because they had such a big lead. It gave me the chance to ride myself into a little better shape. I had been sick that year with mono and had been totally wiped out. I only started feeling better in May and June. I was always in survival mode, but I slowly pulled back the time that I had lost.