Three-Time Tour de France Champion Greg LeMond to Speak to Students at Santa Clara University on "Ethics, Doping, and the Future of Cycling"

Business Wire, Jan 22, 2008

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond will speak at 6 p.m. Sunday, February 17, on "Ethics, Doping, and the Future of Cycling" at the Leavey Center at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif.

The event is free and open to the public. Joining LeMond in the discussion will be San Francisco Chronicle columnist Gwen Knapp, who has written extensively about doping. The talk coincides with the beginning of the Tour of California cycling race, scheduled to start the afternoon of Feb. 17 with a time trial in Palo Alto, Calif.

LeMond has long been an outspoken opponent of doping in cycling. In 2007, he played an unexpected role in the international arbitration hearing that eventually decided that American cyclist Floyd Landis should forfeit his 2006 Tour de France title as a result of tests that found abnormally high levels of testosterone. LeMond testified that he had spoken with Landis after his "A" urine sample had tested positive, urging him that if his "B" sample was also positive, he should come clean, help his sport, and "more importantly, help himself." Before his testimony, LeMond had been threatened by Landis' manager.

The doping problem has been most public in the Tour de France--two stage winners of the 2007 Tour withdrew from the race amid doping allegations--but its influence is so pervasive that T-Mobile recently withdrew its sponsorship of a professional cycling team, stating that the company did not want to associate its brand with doping.

In the face of such problems, how can cycling restore its integrity and have a vital future? LeMond will speak about why cyclists resort to doping and what cycling should do as it looks to the future. Knapp will also offer insights on the issue.

LeMond was the first American winner of the Tour de France, taking the 1986 title of the weeks-long, grueling sporting event. Then, after a devastating hunting accident in 1987, he recovered to win the Tour title in both 1989 and 1990. He is a two-time ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year; received the Pernod Trophy awarded to the best cyclist in the world, and is in the Cycling Hall of Fame.

The event is co-sponsored by SCU's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, SCU's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreational Sports and the Commonwealth Club-Silicon Valley.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California's Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,337 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master's universities, California's oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.