Trek drops LeMond
Trek Bicycles has announced that they are dropping the LeMond line from the family. After a few years of escalating surliness coming from namesake Greg LeMond on all things bicycle racing, the only thing surprising about this announcement is that it didn’t happen sooner. Greg has been an outspoken critic of Lance Armstrong since at least ‘01 when the Armstrong/Ferrari link first made a public splash, and his criticism of the entire pro-racing circuit has been coming across loud and clear since. While the apparent conflict of interest between LeMond’s public remarks on the state of professional cycling, no matter how well founded, and the retailing of high performance bicycles would seem to be enough reason to sever business ties, within the initial 2004 legalese between Trek and LeMond there is an allegation of improper use of employee purchasing rights to the tune of $2.5 million in retail value. This is all in addition to spats back and forth over who is or is not supporting the brand enough etc.
This is likely not the last note heard in this song.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
best. lemond. picture. ever.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Yeah dpow, I thought it could’ve been a still from a comic movie.
Favourite Greg Lemond quote: “Do you want me to punch you in the face?”
April 9th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I’m on LeMond’s side on this one.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Same here, all though I’m sure they build many fine bicycles Trek is like the General Motors of the bicycle world IMO.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Here ya go, the best last word/insult*:
“Greg who?”
*And yes, I know who he is, it’s just funnier not to.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
This happened to me when I was managing a shop in L.A. Greg came in, grabbed 2 High end road bikes
and said Trek knows about it, I told my Rep about what happened and he had no idea what i was talking about? I have heard this trick Greg has done with other in the industry.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I liked Greg at one point in my cycling times, I do not any more.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Trek aitn’t exactly like GM. In my experience, Trek stands behind their bikes and honors their warranty without quible.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Lemond may utimately be an ass but he at least has principles and sticks by them. I think we need more people that make a stand regardless of the cost. Society in general is so afraid that someone might get offended for stating their truth.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Absolutely.
Let’s see this for what it is. Trek wants to make more money with Armstrong, pure and simple. They see their job is to make money, not stand up for principles or ethics. Lance Inc. is a money-making machine right now.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I think this really comes down to a business issue: Lemond has been damaging his own brand as well as Trek’s by attacking Armstrong, the industry’s golden goose. It ultimately hurts sales and, as a result, Lemond bikes don’t sell well or with any margin (people in SoCal catch a bit of flak for riding one).
Sadly, Greg Lemond will one day be best known for his big mouth and unfounded accusations (true or not) than his accomplishments.