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Noel Dejonckheere, sprinter and Greg LeMond’s ‘discoverer’, dies at 67

Noel Dejonckheere, sprinter and Greg LeMond’s ‘discoverer’, dies at 67


Noël Dejonckheere, the Belgian sprinter turned mentor and federation coach for young US riders seeking to cut their teeth in Europe, has died at 67 at his home in Izegem, west Flanders.

Dejonckheere is widely credited as being one of the first to see Greg LeMond’s potential talents for European racing, meeting the three-times Tour de France winner while both were competing in the USA in the 1970s and encouraging the teenage LeMond to try his luck on the other side of the Atlantic.

While LeMond went on to ride as a junior in Belgium for a year and then lived in Kortrijk, near Izegem for the rest of his professional career, Dejonckheere turned pro himself, taking 60 wins include six stages of the Vuelta a España.

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