Puy-de-Dôme (French pronunciation: [pɥi də dom]; lo Puèi de Doma / lo Puèi Domat in the Auvergnat dialect of the Occitan language) is a department in the centre of France named after the famous dormant volcano, the Puy-de-Dôme.

Inhabitants were called Puydedomois until December 2005. With effect from Spring 2006, in response to a letter writing campaign, the name used for the inhabitants was change by the departmental General Council to Puydômois, and this is the name that has since then been used in all official documents and publications.

Puy-de-Dôme is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Auvergne. Originally, the department was to be called Mont-d'Or ("Golden Mountain"), but this was changed to Puy-de-Dôme following the intervention of Jean-François Gaultier de Biauzat, a local deputy, because of a concern that the name originally chosen risked attracting excessive unwelcome attention from the national taxation authorities.

Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmerks]) (born 17 June 1945 in Meensel-Kiezegem), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all time. He won the Tour de France five times, won all the monuments of cycling at least twice, with 19 monument victories in all, won the Giro d'Italia five times and the Vuelta a España once, won the world championship once as an amateur and three times as a professional, and broke the world hour record.

Eddy Merckx was one of three children born to a couple who ran a grocery in the middle-class area of Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, near Brussels, Belgium. His brother and sister are twins. The family moved to the suburb when he was young. He said:

He acquired his first racing bike, second-hand, when he was eight. His hero was Stan Ockers, who died in a fall on an Antwerp track in 1956.

Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961 in Lakewood, California) is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California and raised in Reno, Nevada.

In 1986, LeMond became the first American and the first non-European cyclist to win the Tour de France. The following year he was shot and seriously injured in a hunting accident. He was able to return to the Tour in 1989, winning it dramatically in its final stage. He won again for the third time the following year in 1990. He is one of only nine cyclists to have won the Tour three or more times.

Greg LeMond was a standout junior rider who quickly established himself as one of the most talented cyclists in the professional circuit. After his initial success on the junior circuit he began competing against older, more seasoned competitors. He gained the attention of the US Cycling Federation's national team, riding for them at the 1979 Junior World Championships held in Argentina. There he won gold, silver and bronze medals, the highlight being his spectacular victory in the road race. He was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic cycling team, the youngest ever, at 18, to make the U.S. team; however, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from competing there.