LeMond wins Du Pont
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from May 1992.
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LeMond, the three time Tour de France winner who has often used this event as a tune-up for the prestigious French race, finished third in the final stage to secure his victory.
LeMond, 30, completed the 22.7-kilometre (14-mile) individual time trial in 29 minutes 59 seconds, four seconds behind winning compatriot Steve Hegg, a 1984 Olympic team pursuit gold medallist. Beat Zberg of Switzerland finished the final stage second in 29:57. The overall winning time for LeMond was 44 hours 27 minutes 43 seconds, for a 20-second victory margin over Norwegian teammate Atle Kvalsvoll, who finished second for the third consecutive year.
"This year it's okay to finish second because we are on the same team," said the 28-year-old Kvalsvoll. "To lose to (Erik) Breukink on the last day is not so good, but I feel we won the race as one team."
LeMond, who wore the overall leader's jersey for the final three days of the race, held a precarious 0.13-second margin over Kvalsvoll heading into the final stage.
"I didn't think I had a chance to win," said LeMond, after recording his first stage race victory since the 1990 Tour de France. "I thought it was Atle's race. But as the race progressed I felt better and it became a team win."
Stephen Swart of New Zealand placed third overall, 28 seconds behind LeMond, and Zberg finished fourth, 31 seconds off the winning pace.
Phil Anderson of Australia, who won three stages, and Switzerland's Guido Winterberg tied for fifth, one minute behind LeMond, who hadn't won a stage race in his native country since the 1985 Coors International Bicycle Classic, held the lead after winning the prologue on May 7 and retained his lead through the first stage.
He lost the lead on the second stage, but regained the yellow jersey with a strong 11th place finish in the eigth stage and never relinquished it again.
LeMond, who finished in the top 10 in eight of the event's 12 races, had difficutly adjusting his gears while climbing the one hill on the time trial course, but still was one of only three cyclists to break 30 minutes.
