For as much as American cyclists idolized Greg LeMond in the 1980s and early 1990s, for a great many years there was really only one book on the three-time Tour de France Winner, “Greg LeMond’s Complete Book of Bicycling.” And while it included a fascinating look inside the 1986 Tour de France, the book was mostly prescriptive—a how-to—and as a result focused more on things like how to eat for racing and how to fit your bicycle.
My guest for this week’s show is writer Daniel de Visé. He has taken on this battle of the titans, and more in his new book is called “The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the true king of American cycling and a legendary Tour de France.”
De Visé is a journalist of the classic mold. He cut his teeth working at the Miami Herald where he was part of a team of reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the battle over Elian Gonzalez. Later, he worked for the Washington Post. His first book grew out of a story he wrote about a woman with complete retrograde amnesia, something that almost never happens, despite how often it turns up in TV shows. His second concerned Don Knotts and Andy Griffith and their on-screen as well as off-screen friendship. Considering those volumes, one could be forgiven their surprise at his decision to write a book about a bike race.
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To learn more, visit Daniel de Visé or the Atlantic Monthly Press. For more information about his speaking tour, go here.