Greg LeMond gives Tadej Pogacar 'benefit of doubt' in regard to doping: "There's only one person I saw the real physical evidence to go: that guy's doing something not right"

Greg LeMond is one of the icons of American cycling, winning the Tour de France on three occasions in 1986, 1989 and 1990. At the French Grand Tour this year though, Tadej Pogacar dominated en route to writing one of the most successful seasons in cycling history.

The Slovenian's brilliance hasn't been totally without criticism though, although LeMond himself believes he can theorise an explanation for the record breaking performances seen in 2024. "I do believe the riders today, compared to when we were about, have lost muscle mass. The average rider today, I think would be racing three four kilos lighter and for every kilo it's about a minute up a climb," he explains to Eurosport. 

LeMond himself has been outspoken in the past against doping, but he doesn't feel that response should be the automatic one whenever a rider starts impressing. "I like to give people the benefit of doubt," he smiles. "There's only one person I saw the real physical evidence to go: 'that guy's doing something not right'," he adds, referring to Lance Armstrong.

"In my calculations, I've got Pogacar doing 410 / 420 watts and that's absolutely in the realm that I could have done," LeMond continues. "It's hard to compare eras and it's hard to go: 'because they're beating the EPO period that they have to be on EPO', I'm just saying there's some real logic as to why riders are going faster today and it's not new training theories, it's that they're under the gun to race and it's all power to weight ratio."

"Pogacar really is an incredible talent. So, it's 'amazing' what he's doing, but whether it was the Eddy Merckx era of Anquetil in the 80s, at the Tour de France there's just always one or two riders that are above," the American concludes. "So as dominating as he was, he really wasn't that much more dominating than Vingegaard."