LeMond revives bike business with Time

This article first appeared on BikeRadar.

At Interbike next week, three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond will be getting back into the bike business by introducing a limited-edition line of carbon road bikes produced by Time.

The LeMond line will consist of three bikes, with color schemes based on his Tour wins in 1986, 1989 and 1090.

"My interest in the bicycle as a machine, with its design, details and innovative possibilities, never went away after I retired from racing in late 1994," LeMond said in a press release. "For a time I lost my creative outlet, but like form coming back to a rider who was weakened, I have rediscovered my creativity and passion for the bike. I’ve traveled the world, observing carbon fabrication in more detail than ever before, and I’ve refined my ideas."

For the bikes, LeMond is again working with Jean Marc Gueugneaud of Time Sport International. The pair go back to 1985, when Gueugneaud – then at Look – built carbon bikes for LeMond and his La Vie Claire teammate Bernard Hinault. Gueugneaud left Look to launch TVT, a custom carbon manufacturer, which built bikes for likes of LeMond, Pedro Delgado and Miguel Indurain, and in fact LeMond won his three Tours on TVT frames.

LeMond said that while he is found of his history with Gueugneaud, he was impressed with the technology Time uses today.

Valentino Campagnolo will join LeMond at Interbike for the launch, as his company is providing its 80th Anniversary Record groups for the new bikes.

LeMond had his own name-brand bikes for several years. He began LeMond Cycles in the early 1990s, then licensed the brand to Trek in 1995. In 2008, Trek announced it would stop making LeMond bikes and a two-year legal battle ensued. LeMond argued in court that Trek was pushed to drop LeMond by Lance Armstrong. For its part, Trek argued that LeMond’s well-known and public allegations that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing substances caused a decline in the LeMond Bicycle brand sales.