LeMond never fails to speak his mind

Which is good, we need more people - real people, not just organisations, lawyers, figureheads and spokespeople - to speak out and balance things a bit. If you have followed cycling - pro racing - for the last 20 or 30 years then you'll know LeMond and understand at least a bit of his journey. And knowing the backstory helps us to trust him, or at least to acknowledge his views as worth a pause and a bit of reflection. For mine, I trust him. He seems real.   

LeMond: Armstrong Has Been Trying To Destroy Me For 10 Years | Cyclingnews.com

Former three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond says that Lance Armstrong has been trying to destroy him for over ten years. The now outspoken anti-doping advocate made the claims during an interview with Irish radio Newstalk in which he spoke candidly about a number of topics including his abuse as a child, living with attention deficit disorder, Lance Armstrong and doping in the sport.

LeMond: Armstrong Has Been Trying To Destroy Me For 10 Years | Cyclingnews.com

LeMond stepped away from the sport not long after retiring at the end of the 1994 season, but when Armstrong first returned from cancer he was like many, a believer. That was until he began to hear the rumours surrounding his countryman.

"I couldn’t be honest with myself. I knew too much from 2000 on," he said. "From 2001 and on I didn’t have anything good to say. I made up the logic in my mind that Festina Affair happened in '98 and it cleaned up. Somebody came back, they lost weight, that whole story I bought into. Then I started hearing rumours and the rumours were good observations from people within the sport. Then in 2000 I heard some disturbing stuff from someone in the team and it became impossible. I backed away from cycling at that point."

I don't know the truth here - like most of us I can only guess - but what LeMond says resonates with what I have seen and heard. I'm sure there's more to come.