After eight turbulent years, Trek Bicycle Corp. finally severed relations last week with three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond over his continued allegations that Trek spokesman Lance Armstrong and other cyclists had used performance enhancing drugs.


In a meeting with employees and industry press, Trek President John Burke said Trek had filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to terminate its relationship with LeMond.


Burke said Trek would complete what few LeMond bikes were in production and work with its dealer network to sell them through. He estimated the LeMond brand generated $15 million in annual sales, but had been flat for years because of a consumer and dealer backlash against LeMond’s public remarks suggesting seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong was involved in the sport’s doping scandal.


Trek began making LeMond bikes in 1995, at a time when Burke said LeMond was struggling to keep the business alive. Within three years of licensing his name and image to Trek, 700 dealers were carrying LeMond bikes and sales had reached $9 million.


The brand was perfectly positioned when Lance Armstrong’s compelling Tour de France victories propelled the nation into a cycling frenzy in 1999, Burke said. But in 2000, against Trek’s guidance, LeMond launched his own line of parts and accessories through mass merchants.  


When the venture failed, Burke said, it damaged the LeMond brand and hurt Trek and its dealers. Then things got really ugly.


“The next year, instead of heralding the success of a fellow American, Greg chose to publicly raise questions about Lance’s success and his integrity,” Burke said. “This despite his benefiting from this success and despite Trek’s best efforts to make peace. We found ourselves with one individual causing real problems for the brand, the retailers, and the Trek family as a whole.”


Burke was referencing suggestions LeMond made in the press that Armstrong – a cancer survivor – and other athletes might have used performance enhancing drugs to secure an unprecedented seven Tour de France victories.
 
“We never discouraged Greg from speaking out about doping in cycling,” Burke said. “But we know there is a difference between attacking an issue and destroying reputations. But it didn’t seem that Greg did.”


By the summer of 2004, when bike sales were hitting records, sales of the LeMond had stalled and Trek encouraged LeMond to find another partner.


LeMond responded by suing Trek. When the parties settled in 2005, LeMond agreed in writing to stop attacking individual athletes and focus on promoting bikes, Burke said.
 
The next year, Trek invested in launching a new LeMond product line. It invited more than 100 dealers to its headquarters to promote the brand and launch a marketing campaign. Within three weeks, LeMond was quoted by a French newspaper saying “Lance is ready to do anything to keep his secret…I don’t know how he can continue to convince everybody of his innocence.”


Burke said media coverage of the remarks prompted complaints from customers and dealers.


“Last time LeMond spoke out about Lance my LeMond sales went down,” Burke said one dealer wrote. “I could not give the expensive ones away. Now he is out trash talking Lance again in the media. I thought we were past this and was excited about the new LeMond bikes. I don’t see how this can help sales.”


Finally, in November, 2007, Burke told LeMond that Trek would not extend its licensing agreement beyond 2010.


On March 20, LeMond responded with a lawsuit which asks that Trek be ordered to continue making and marketing LeMond bikes. The lawsuit asks the judge to order Trek to produce documents proving damage to sales, which LeMond said continued growing from 2001 to 2004. The bulk of the suit is used to demonstrate that Trek terminated the agreement under intense pressure from Armstrong as retribution for LeMond’s public remarks.