Remembering legends: Greg LeMond

Greg LeMond's story is one of the most astonishing in sport, for he won two Tour de France titles after he was shot by his brother

How many athletes can talk of coming back from the brink of death or disability and then win the greatest prize their sport has to offer?
Not many, and Greg LeMond is one of them.

In 1986, LeMond became the first American to win cycling's mega event, the Tour de France. Within a year he would be fighting for his life.

On April 20, 1987, his brother-in-law was hunting when he accidentally let go on Greg. Over forty shotgun pellets ripped through Greg's body, lodging in his back and legs, small intestine, liver, diaphragm, and heart lining. His right lung collapsed and he lost three fourths of his blood supply.
Luckily, a police helicopter arrived on being alerted by phone, and took him to a nearby hospital that specialized in gun shot wounds. Surgeons however had to leave over thirty of the pellets imbedded in his body.

The American, amazingly enough, seemed to believe he had it him to compete again, when most people wondered if he could start riding a cycle. He had lost over twenty pounds, most of it muscle, and his level of fitness had decreased dramatically. His goal was to retain the Tour; and only his wife Kathy and a few close friends believed he could do it.

It was during this time that he engineered some of those innovations that have become commonplace today, including wind tunnel testing, aeroframes, heart rate monitors, and human power output measuring devices.

Ultimately, the perseverance paid off; LeMond was back cyclng. Still, when he entered the 1989 Tour, it seemed an impossible task for him to even finish. Twenty-one days of racing, each day amounting to 100-155 miles.

LeMond went on to script one of the most sensational Tour wins, with just an eight-second lead over Frenchman Laurent Fignon, the narrowest margin of victory ever in the Tour's 87-year history.
A month later he won the World Championships, leading to him being named the 1989 "Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year".

The next year he won his third Tour, before deciding to retire from competitive cycling.

LeMond now has a new passion: Formula 2000 racing. He enjoys skiing, surfing, fly-fishing, golfing and small-game hunting.

In retrospect, LeMond believes he would have won five Tour titles. In 1985, LeMond was way ahead of the pack when team boss Bernard Tapie and coach Paul Keochli asked him to slow down, saying Hinault, who had won four Tour titles and going for his fifth, was right behind. LeMond kept waiting until he realised he'd been tricked; Hinault was more than three to four minutes behind.

Worse was to come. LeMond was promised Hinault would help him win the following Tour, but Hinault kept attacking him, and that stunned him. He later said about the incident "…it was like being burned by your brother. He was a guy I idolized."
But LeMond held on to win, despite breaking a wheel in the first time-trial, and thus losing a minute and a half due to mechanicals.

Then the two years of his prime, 1987 and 88, were lost with the injury. And with Hinault and Fignon out, it really should have been the LeMond era.
Still, it is what he has achieved despite the injury that is breath-taking, and it will be for this reason that he will remain one of the greatest achievers in sport.

Greg LeMond

Born: June 26, 1961

Winner: Tour de France 1986, 89, 90
World Championships 89