A vintage photo of Greg LeMond on a training ride with his Z-Tomasso team in the early ’90s. The guy who rides the scooter is Otto Jacome, he was Greg LeMond’s soigneur during his career.
Otto Jacome was even considered as Greg LeMond’s second father, as he was by his side in the most important aspects of LeMond’s cycling career, treasuring fond memories that he shares with those who have a conversation with him.
Please note Greg LeMond’s Scott drop-in handlebars. He was one of the first riders to really understand the importance of aerodynamics in road racing.
However, according to Bike Radar, presenting the full width of your arms to the wind would likely negate any aero benefit of being positioned lower. LeMond’s Z teammate Éric Boyer says these handlebars were looking col, but, in practice, they were pointless.
Otto Jacome was born on March 3, 1937, in Monclova, a city and the seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.
He practiced many sports such as cycling, football (soccer), boxing, and athletics until 1962, the year in which he was National Middleweight Champion in Puebla and Mr. Norte in Nueva Rosita, Coahuila. In that same year, he fixed his passport and went to live in San José, California where his life would change completely.
In the United States, he practiced tennis and diving. In 1977 his children started cycling and there he met Greg LeMond. A year later when Greg was 17, he took him for a run to Tijuana, and in 1979 he formed the Norte de California quartet with Greg, Bob, LeMond’s father, and two others.
He took a national coaching course at Colorado Sping and the USA Federation sent him as Technical Director to Monterrey. He was a youth coach at a sports club in San José, California.
In 1980 he led the Northern California team in the Coors Clasic Vuelta Semipro. He led the MC Root Beer team to the Vuelta de Baja California. He took a sports massage course in San José and in 1981 introduced the (now very common) interval system.
In 1983, Mexican cyclist Luis Rosendo Ramos won the Pan American Games in Colombia. The Monterrey newspapers recognized that thanks to the interval system that he trained with Otto, they helped him win.
In 1985, Greg LeMond invited him to work as a masseur at the Coors Classic with the La Vie Clarie team. The same year, Bernard Hinault won his 5th Tour de France.
In 1989 they went to the ADR Team of Belgium. That year Greg won the Tour de France with the closest margin in history, beating Frenchman Laurent Fignon by only 8 seconds. A year later he won the world championship in France.
In 1990 Greg switched teams, and went to “Z” from France, taking Jacome with him and winning his third tour of France.
Their partnership continued until 1995 when Greg LeMond retired from cycling, so Otto also retired as well.
In 2018, he created the Otto Jacome Cycling Team.
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