Anatomy of a Photo: Greg LeMan

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• Its the Gun Envy he knows everyone has.

  @Jeff in PetroMetro

  It's the white lever hoods. It's the pearl white Benotto tape. It's all the shiny bits. It's the stem. It's the round, deep bars. It's the glint from the summer sun on the DT spokes and box rims. It's the 53 x 11. It's the Number 1 on his rainbow jersey. It's the violet Avocet and Z's. It's the fork rake. It's the bidons that say, "American Caffeine and Sugar. Serve it ice cold. Bitches." It's the blue iridium Oakley Razor Blades that we wish we still had and could wear just one more time. It's riding without a helmet and not giving it a thought. It's descending at 80kph with more than enough cool to flash us a smile.
  That was twenty years ago. I remember it so clearly, like it was this afternoon.
  That's Greg LeMond. That's my hero.

  Roger that, chief. Except it was a Cyclomaster, not an Avocet. He was on Avocet in '89, with the yellow model, called the Lemon(d). In '90, he switched to Cyclomaster with an altimeter which operated by using a device that measured the incline and then used distance to compute elevation. Much more elegant than the barometric ones. The only problem was it didn't work.

  I've been really busy and not on the site much yesterday (and won't be today). My side hurts from reading everyone's posts. Brilliant fucking work, everyone.

• It's the being in a tuck going uphill.

• By the way, that picture is everything cool about cycling. That is not a Lemond frame, despite the logs. It's a TVT. Those lugs, the Deltas, the scott drop-ins, the fucking bomb-diggity. The benoto tape (which you can get at Excel Sports now, by the way, although it's an order of magnitude more expensive now).

  I loved those drop-ins.

  (Those are a pair of Deugi shoes I drilled to attach clipless pedals to, and modified to look like LeMan's shoes.

• Jarvis :
  The greatest American cyclist and a legend. Great photo, great style.
  And probably it's the smile.

  YES! The TOTAL package! The man would would leave it ALL out there for a 4th place finish in Paris-Roubaix, win and a 3rd in the Dauphine, 2nd in Giro de Lombardia, 3 wins a 2nd and a 3rd at the Tour, a 3rd and a 4th place at the Giro d'Italia, a 2nd a Milan San Remo, a 3rd at Paris-Nice, and finally TWO wins in the World Championships! The Man was the absolute TOTAL racer, not just a one or two race pnoy show!

  Exuded class on and off the bike for many years.

• ...

  @xyxax
  the mere fact that falling off would grind that stainless band into his wrist means nothing. The boogie man checks for Greg LeMan under his bed @ night.

• No Helmet!

• @Collin

  It's The V quads. Attaining The V quads and The V calves is my goal. Was Rule V picked thusly? Our muscles form the symbol once we have begun dishing adequate amounts. I'd like to think it was thought out as much as the 14-cog V-symbol.

  Actually, we'll be doing an on-going photo roll (reader-posted) of all the places where you find the V; either in your guns, on the bike, or just anywhere else. The V is everywhere; it surrounds us, penetrates us, binds us together - like The Force. You just have to quiet your mind enough to see it.

  LeMan's guns are outrageous.

• its 2 things:
  1. the ShamWow Z matching kit gloves and shorts and Greg knowing all about this before anyone else

  2. His ego being totally unchallenged and relishing being a legend in his own mind

• @Steampunk

  Frank's father, resplendent in wild animal pelts and sporting the biggest bowie knife you've ever seen, is just outside the frame of the pic.

  He actually did buy a Bowie knife after he watched Crocodile Dundee.

• @frank
  Hopefully one of our fellow tribe-members can identify the location of this photo. I am at a loss.