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Spyns clients travel with us to France for the world's greatest sporting event, but few understand the Tour de France is huge business. Millions of dollars in ad revenues and sponsorships are at stake and money tends to complicate or even corrupt. Case in point: a battle royal ptting three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and the Trek Bicycle Corporation (or Lance Armstrong Inc). In short, Greg casually accused Lance of doping. Trek is Lance's sponsor. Lance wasn't happy. Cue the lawsuits.
Recently Greg LeMond and Lance/Trek have reached an out-of-court settlement in their bruising breach-of-contract dispute, a fight that lasted nearly two years and often centered on allegations about Lance Armstrong and doping. The terms of the settlement, which comes just a month before the case was scheduled to go before a jury in a federal court in Minnesota, are confidential. But a joint statement shows that Trek has agreed to make a contribution to a charitable organization with which LeMond is affiliated.
LeMond's attorney, James DiBoise, told the Daily News that Trek will donate $200,000 to 1in6.org, an organization that supports victims of sexual abuse. A $100,000 installment is expected to be given in 10 days, and the remainder of the donation will come in one year, DiBoise said.
The settlement comes after a week of negotiations. Lawyers for Trek and LeMond resolved the case over the weekend and issued their joint statement yesterday. "Greg has a hard-won place in the pantheon of bicycle racing, and we are proud of what we were able to accomplish together," Trek's president, John Burke, said in the release.
"I am pleased to resolve the issues between Trek and myself and am happy to be able to move forward with the things important in my life," LeMond said in the release. With the settlement, neither side can bring the same claims again in future lawsuits. LeMond sued Trek in March 2008, and the company countersued a month later. Trek's lead attorney, Ralph Weber, declined to comment on the settlement. DiBoise, who took over as LeMond's attorney last fall, said the dismissal doesn't prevent his client from initiating legal action against any other parties, including Armstrong.
"Greg would still be permitted to pursue action against anyone who he determines in the future interferes with his business relationships, and he's also free to make certain that folks who have maligned him are held accountable," said DiBoise. Trek, which is based in Minnesota, got caught in the middle of the war between America's two most accomplished cyclists nearly a decade ago, as the two men became bitter enemies amid the finger-pointing that characterizes their sport's doping epidemic.
For years, Trek had distributed LeMond's line of high-end bikes while sponsoring and supplying Armstrong's winning teams at the Tour de France, but in 2001, LeMond angered Armstrong by speaking to a journalist who was writing about Armstrong's relationship with an Italian doctor who was at the time facing accusations he assisted cyclists in doping.
For more information about our Tour de France trips, please visit our website http://www.tdf-tours.com/, email us at info@tdf-tours.com, or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.
