Trek Bicycle Corporation signed a long-term licensing agreement with Greg LeMond, the 3-time Tour de France champion and the first American to win the Tour—to design, build, and distribute LeMond Racing Cycles. 1995 was also the year Trek opened a state-of-the-art assembly facility in Whitewater, Wisconsin, leaving the Waterloo location free to focus solely on frame production. In 1997, Trek helped sign former world road race champion (1993) Lance Armstrong to the Trek-sponsored United States Postal Service Pro Cycling Team. Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999 aboard a Trek 5500, becoming the first American to win the Tour on an
Bicycle suspension named "Split Pivot". Trek Bicycle Corporation also released a version of the split pivot design called "Active Braking Pivot" (ABP) in early 2007. Cycles Devinci has released a licensed implementation of the "Split Pivot" design which Dave Weagle managed to patent. "Horst Link" suspension is a type of four-bar linkage suspension. It is characterized by having both connecting links pivot on the seat tube, with the lower pivot located above the center of the bottom bracket, and the rear axle being located higher than the pivot connecting floating link and lower connecting link. Specialized has bought several of Leitner's patents