There are so many ‘firsts’ here. It’s the first time the Tour de France has climbed the steep Col de Joux Plane in the High Alps. The lead rider, Bernard Hinault is competing in his first Tour (1978, he won it), and somewhere in the crowd a 17-year-old future Tour winner, Greg LeMond is watching the race live for the first time.
LeMond was a prodigy in the US, when in 1978 he made his first racing trip to Europe. He quickly became regarded as one there too. The parents of one of his cycling friends, Kent Gordis, had a house in Switzerland, and Gordis’s mum piloted the two US juniors on a whirlwind racing trip around Europe.
LeMond won in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Italy. The word soon became that this young American would be the next big thing in cycling. The desire to be a pro really took hold of LeMond, but it was the French Olympic downhill ski gold medallist, Jean-Claude Killy, who introduced him to the Tour de France.
Killy was an avid cyclist and had a chalet on the Col de Joux Plane. He invited LeMond and a few others to ride out to his place, where they could watch the Tour. When LeMond saw it, he was certain of where he wanted to be.
“I didn’t believe it was a dream either, I was winning most of my races, and I’d beaten the European juniors, riders who were serious and who knew they would be pros. For me it was a reality. I could do it,” he says.
After seeing the race LeMond wrote down what he wanted to achieve. “It was on a yellow legal pad; I wrote a list of 4 things. The 4 things I wanted to win as a cyclist, and when I wanted to win them by. They were winning the junior road race world title in 1979, the Olympic gold in 1980, the professional road race world title by the time I was 23, and the Tour de France before I was 25.”
He achieved them all except 1, the Olympic gold medal.
Photo credit: L'Equipe
