Posts tagged Greg LeMond
The Last Rider
June 29, 2023 10:00am
by
rob
I saw the new Greg LeMond documentary last night: The Last Rider. Here are some quick notes (not a full or formal review).
It doesn’t bring anything new to light that LeMond fans won’t know already. It may be good for new audiences, though.
Like the film Slaying the Badger, which bent over backwards to make Hinault “the bad guy,” I’d say The Last Rider works too hard to paint Fignon as the villain.
Greg’s last time trial performance in the '89 Tour was amazing. He got back almost a minute on Fignon and won by the slimmest margin ever. But it has been well documented that this was largely due to his use of the Scott aero bars. From Wikipedia: "A November 1989 Bicycling article, supported by wind-tunnel data, estimated that LeMond may have gained one minute on Fignon through the use of the new aerobars." There is virtually no mention of this in the film.
The theme of the film is “trauma” and there is a lot of focus LeMond’s past as a sexual abuse survivor, and then the 1987 hunting accident.
Doping is painted in a very black and white way, and there is even a little dig at Lance at the end. But Pedro Delgago is one of the main narrators of the film, and there is no mention of Delgado testing positive for the known masking agent Probenecid during the 1988 Tour.
Here’s a longer review that I mostly agree with. If you haven’t seen it, I’d wait til you can stream it somewhere for free.
Meanwhile, I want to read the Fignon book and learn his side of the story.
Have you seen it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Shop LeMond bikes on BikeList!
It doesn’t bring anything new to light that LeMond fans won’t know already. It may be good for new audiences, though.
Like the film Slaying the Badger, which bent over backwards to make Hinault “the bad guy,” I’d say The Last Rider works too hard to paint Fignon as the villain.
Greg’s last time trial performance in the '89 Tour was amazing. He got back almost a minute on Fignon and won by the slimmest margin ever. But it has been well documented that this was largely due to his use of the Scott aero bars. From Wikipedia: "A November 1989 Bicycling article, supported by wind-tunnel data, estimated that LeMond may have gained one minute on Fignon through the use of the new aerobars." There is virtually no mention of this in the film.
The theme of the film is “trauma” and there is a lot of focus LeMond’s past as a sexual abuse survivor, and then the 1987 hunting accident.
Doping is painted in a very black and white way, and there is even a little dig at Lance at the end. But Pedro Delgago is one of the main narrators of the film, and there is no mention of Delgado testing positive for the known masking agent Probenecid during the 1988 Tour.
Here’s a longer review that I mostly agree with. If you haven’t seen it, I’d wait til you can stream it somewhere for free.
Meanwhile, I want to read the Fignon book and learn his side of the story.
Have you seen it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Shop LeMond bikes on BikeList!