The Comeback

April 9, 2018
In this thorough biography, De Visé (Andy and Don) uses Greg Lemond’s razor-thin victory over Frenchman Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour de France as a framing device to tell the life story of the first great American road cyclist of the modern era. De Visé describes LeMond’s childhood in California with a supportive family, which was clouded by years of sexual abuse by a neighbor. He picked up cycling at age 14 in 1974, and by the time he was 17, the international cycling world began taking notice. In 1986, he became the first American to win the Tour de France, defeating Frenchman Bernard Hinault. His opportunity to repeat that feat was cut short when he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law while hunting in 1987. Two years after his injury, LeMond made his comeback, and De Visé brings that race vividly to life as LeMond and Fignon go neck and neck to the finish line. In LeMond’s later career and retirement, he became the “conscience of professional cycling” as the most vocal critic of the sport’s doping scandals and Lance Armstrong, whose malice toward LeMond extended for years until his comeuppance. De Visé offers a thrilling read and exciting history for cycling and noncycling fans alike.

May 1, 2018

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist de Visé (Andy and Don) pens a thoroughly well-researched work about Greg LeMond's cycling exploits from childhood races, impressive pro career, postcareer life, and business pursuits. Some of LeMond's lasting contributions to the sport include incorporating new cycling technologies, demanding higher salary compensation for racers, and igniting biking interest in the United States. De Visé's work details LeMond's numerous entrepreneurial pursuits as well as his feuds with Lance Armstrong, but differs from similar titles such as Sam Abt's LeMond: The Incredible Comeback of an American Hero, as it documents LeMond's entire career, not just his heroic comeback from a near fatal hunting accident. Another comparison might be drawn to Guy Andrews's Greg LeMond: Yellow Jersey Racer, with its wealth of images plus direct commentary by LeMond and his contemporaries. A library with a comprehensive sports collection would ideally own all three titles. VERDICT De Visé's account stands out owing to its depth of coverage, captivating prose, and variety of historical and contemporary news sources. An impressive read for anyone interested in cycling.--John N. Jax, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., La Crosse

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018
"It's not the bicycle...it's the legs": a sprint through a big swatch of bicycling history, focusing on racer Greg LeMond's triumphant return from disaster.Veteran journalist de Visé (Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show, 2015, etc.) takes on a big story with that of LeMond, who, in the mid-1970s, came roaring out of a bicycle racing scene that "resembled Grateful Dead concerts, albeit on a smaller stage." Nicknamed "Lemonster," the determined young man came along at just the time that the U.S. bicycling scene was emerging from its backwater doldrums, a flowering celebrated in the contemporary film Breaking Away. LeMond famously went on to become the first American to win the storied Tour de France competition in 1986. The following year, while recuperating from an injury, he was accidentally shot while hunting and nearly bled to death, necessitating a long program of recovery. He survived to win twice more, in 1989 and 1990, when he "seemed...more nervous about his chances now than in 1989, when his odds were indeed slim, and more fearful of some mishap than in 1986, when the Tour director himself had fretted for Greg's safety." The author, who sometimes writes with the techno-geekery of the bicycle acolyte and sometimes with the breeziness of a practiced sportscaster, makes clear that LeMond accomplished all this largely through sheer determination. His opposite in all this, apart from a few diabolical French opponents, is Lance Armstrong, who "possessed the raw talent to become an elite athlete" but exhibited all the arrogance and weakness of character that would later lead to his expulsion from the sport for doping. In that matter, LeMond, now in his late 50s, has emerged as an advocate for racing reforms that include ending the practice of allowing cyclists to change bikes midrace.It's a pleasure to ride in the peloton alongside LeMond, who emerges from this account as America's once-and-future cycling great.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.