Cyclingnews caught up with three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond at the USA Cycling Pro Road Championships in Tennessee, where LeMond and his wife Kathy have recently made a new home, to find out what he thinks about the upcoming Tour de France and who he considers to be the favourites to win the overall.
Now that Team Ineos have lost Chris Froome to a terrible crash during the Criterium du Dauphine, the British team will be supporting co-leaders in defending champion Geraint Thomas and its star young rider Egan Bernal. LeMond knows a thing or two about racing the Tour de France as part of a two-pronged strategy, having shared leadership with both Laurent Fignon and Bernard Hinault in his day.
Whereas Movistar last year had a trio of leaders and came up short of the podium, last season Team Sky put both Thomas and Froome in the top three - it's always a gamble spreading a team's resources, even more so now that Grand Tour teams are only eight riders. But LeMond thinks Team Ineos have the discipline to make co-leadership work.
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"I think [dual leadership] takes the pressure off, actually, if you have a smart director." LeMond tells Cyclingnews.
"Thomas won it last year - but it's not like he's a three-time Tour champion. It's like Fignon and I - I could have done the Tour that year when he won it [1984 -ed]. But I decided Worlds was my objective that year. It was awkward, and I didn't really race as well as I could have. I got sick in the beginning, so it didn't end up being a conflict.
"With a good director you can use that to your advantage. Somebody has to be willing to sacrifice themselves, it might be Geraint Thomas, it might be Bernal. If you don't have Froome there, I think you're better off having a couple guys there who are really good, who can play off each other.
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