Is Tadej Pogačar Making Greg LeMond Believe In Cycling Again?

Greg LeMond has been shot with pellets, verbally attacked by cycling peers and was nearly beaten to his first Tour de France win by a rival who he considered a brother.

Little wonder there were years when he did not have faith in the sport and times he turned his back on it.

But he is following the modern peloton and is a big fan of Tadej Pogačar.

“He’s such a natural talent, the proof has been [there] from the day he got into cycling,” LeMond told France 2 TV show Velo Club Sunday in Paris. “I like him as a person.”

“I think he treats the riders fairly, I think he’s a good representation for cycling.

“I love his attitude, he supports his wife [Urška Zigart], she’s a racer. He’s a good example for cycling,” the three-time Tour de France winner added.

The 65-year-old previously praised Pogačar’s all-round capabilities and called him “the biggest talent since Merckx” in a 2023 interview with Velo.

“I think the first time he won the Tour, I was blown away by his talent, he was 21 years old,” he said of Pogačar’s 2020 triumph, ahead of the broadcast of stage 21. “I was hoping for a little better battle with Vingegaard [in recent years – ed], but even then I saw Pogačar seemed to improve.

“It’s like he’s in the era like Hinault was with Eddy Merckx, and I hear a lot of people comparing him to Eddy Merckx. There’s only one Eddy Merckx in all of history.”

40 years since America’s first Tour triumph

Today marks precisely 40 years since LeMond took America’s first Tour de France victory. “Feels like yesterday for me, but still quite a few years ago. Still good memories though,” LeMond said.

The 1986 edition was one of the most enthralling in the race’s long history. While their La Vie Claire team dominated, teammates LeMond and Bernard Hinault traded the lead and attacks, leading the younger man to wonder if the French hero was holding up his side of the pre-race bargain to work for him.

At moments, it seemed like five-time winner Hinault was doing his best to beat him and add one more victory to his tally. Crossing the line atop Alpe d’Huez hand-in-hand on stage 18 put to bed the idea of that.

LeMond’s fragile Alpe d’Huez alliance with Hinault

“So the actual agreement for that stage was [team boss] Bernard Tapie who said, ‘ok, it’s Hinault’s last Tour, he needs to win the stage’. But then he [Hinault] said the race isn’t over until the last time-trial.”

“For me, Alpe d’Huez was kind of a relief because I always looked at Hinault as like a big brother. It was a problem trying to compete against each other. Well, I feel like I did my tactic of the day, a Bernard Tapie tactic. That gesture [crossing the line together] was authentic.”

On a big day over the Galibier and Croix de Fer, they put over five minutes into their closest rival on the day, Urs Zimmermann.

LeMond was accidentally shot while hunting in 1987 but returned to the top step of the podium in unlikely circumstances two summers later.

Having been thinking of quitting cycling before the Tour after a woeful Giro d’Italia, he beat Laurent Fignon by eight seconds with a spectacular last day turn-around. His third and final Tour win followed in 1990.

LeMond: I was not cycling’s first $1 million man

LeMond also lifted the lid on his “charismatic” La Vie Claire team boss Bernard Tapie, who helped to bring higher salaries and a better structure into the old-fashioned sport: “We had our differences in 1986, let’s say, but he really brought in professionalism. He wanted riders to make more money, he was extremely creative and a very good businessman.”

While the Californian was well-paid, Tapie was crafty. “He used me in a way, he told the press how much I was going to get paid, something he never talked about. He said I was making $1 million a year.

“I didn’t even make one-third of that. In everyone’s mind, I made a million dollars a year – I remember hearing that Stephen Roche had even signed for a million for one year.”

Pro cycling sure has changed. LeMond would have reason to admire Tadej Pogačar for even more than just his character, talent and riding style.

His estimated salary is a cool nine times what the American says he did not actually receive from Monsieur Tapie.