August 25, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before 1987, Greg LeMond was already a champion. After 1987, no one expected him to race again. A near-fatal hunting accident left him with life-threatening injuries and months of painful recovery. But in 1989, he returned to the Tour de France, determined to reclaim his place at the top. What followed was a nail-biting battle to the finish line, and a victory measured in seconds that became one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
In July of nineteen eighty six, Greg.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Lahman stunned the sporting world by becoming the first American
to win the Tour de France, the world's pre eminent
bicycle race, arguably the most grueling athletic contest in the world.
After his comeback victory in nineteen eighty nine, Lahman's celebrity
reached heights no one thought possible for a cyclist. He
made the cover of Sports Illustrated and was named their
(00:43):
Sportsman of the Year, a first for any cyclist. Let's
take a listen to the story, starting with the man himself,
Greg Lehman.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Our backyard was like the Alps. I was wild and
into the while. When I was eight years old, I
discovered hiking, fishing, downhill skiing. Coaches said, you know, the
best thing for skiing is cycling. I got to get
(01:13):
a bike. Cycling was a counterculture sport. I kind of
tend to not do what everybody else is doing. My
dad bought one too, so we started riding together. There
was magic to riding. Even by the end of August.
(01:35):
We did one hundred k ride and my dad and
I got to talk and we were like best friends,
like teammates.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
His early career promised greatness. Here's Greg and his father, Bob.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I had a seventy six Volkswagen van. We leave for
the Bay Area of southern California and race. They were
amateur races, but Greg was doing very well.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I won my eleven races and I'm my board sixteen
seventy years all. I went to Europe by myself for
two months with seventy five bucks in my pocket. Everybody
had this mentality that Europeans are unbeatable. They're mythical. Actually,
they're like they're from another planet. I'm thinking those Tour
France winners have to start somewhere, just like me. Two
(02:17):
races switch on. Two races in France, I won him,
went to Belgium, won six out of eight. That's when
I wrote my four goals out.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
And this is written in October of nineteen seventy eight,
which would have made him seventeen cycling goals seventy nine.
Win the Junior World Championship road race, which he did
nineteen eighty, win the Olympic road race, not possible because
of the boycott. By age twenty two win Pro World
(02:49):
Championships road race, age twenty five win the Tour de France.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Quota Broncs at the enormous crowd on I'll do it now, I'd.
Speaker 7 (02:59):
Still a great club, follows the wheel of his teammates
Ben Artino.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
There's something magic about the tour. People talk about the Olympics,
ago that's nothing compared to the Tour as an event.
Speaker 7 (03:12):
The two riders who have projected themselves without a shadow
of the doubt, as the two greatest riders in.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
This year's order France.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's a Formula one Grand Prix New York City marathon,
but doing that for twenty one days and with fifteen.
Speaker 8 (03:26):
Million people, We've got Americans going to possibly win the
Yellow Jersey for the first time.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
All little bit a toord of France in the greatest
tradition of the event.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Before these days it's gone.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
It was the nineteen eighty five Tour de France Cycling
super Bowl, where two hundred riders covered twenty two hundred
miles in three weeks, that established Greg's legendary career.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
Phil we have a chance to superhaps an American winner
here in Greg Lamont.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
Absolutely John and really for the first time Greg LeMond
is now ready to win the Toad of France and
add a little bit more history to this great sporting event.
Of course, he's adversary is his own TEAMMATEO, and he's
the man that Lemon may well have to beat to
get that final yellow jersey. When the race ends in Paris.
Speaker 9 (04:09):
You've got twenty two teams. You're with nine men on
the squad. The unique character who wins the Tour de
France has just about everything. It's very unlikely to be
more than five guys with this unique ability. You've got
to be able to climb mountains, you've got to be
able to show the descending skills at one hundred kilometers
an hour, and above all, you've got to ride the
individual time trials. We always call it the race of truth.
(04:31):
It's you against the watch. And there aren't many writers
got all that ability. So what they do is they
choose a leader who they think have that ability, put
him in as the leader of the team, and then
the others are called the kitchen help. We call them domestiques.
They'll come round you like a queen bee. Their job
is to make sure their leader is in exactly the
position when it matters to win the race, because they
(04:51):
know he can do it and they can't.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
The story in one paragraph goes like this. Greg's French
teammate Bernardino, known as the Badger, had won four Tour
de Frances and nearing the end of his career, wanted
a fifth to equal the tour record. The young Lamand
was stronger upfront.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
The argument goes on, the Mond rebelled against the team's instructions.
He angrily attempts to persuade his coat he should be
given the chance to win the all.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
But under pressure from his team and coach, he agreed
to support Eno rather than take his first victory.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
Bernardino five tour wins. The American story, of course, another
historic one for Greg Lamont from Roschall County, Nevada, a
kiss from his wife Kathy.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
In return, Eno promised to help Lamond win the Tour
de France the following year.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You know it's like, oh, no, another repeat.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
But the Badger renegged on his promise.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
But everybody feels hiding something and.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Repeatedly attacked Lamont during the race and attempts to win again.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
Laman knows now that he must take got bern Argido,
a Machi specialty, but he fell, as simply proved it
felt to be just too stop for the bad jet.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Greg's first Port of France win was achieved not only
without the support of his coach and team, but also
in the face of what many fans believed was outright hostility.
It was a cowboy, reckless and individualistic and raging against
the establishments wed an hour, but it was the right
(06:31):
move and a righteous victory.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And you've been listening to Greg Leman and to his
father tell the story of his remarkable life.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I loved what he said.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Our backyard was like the Alps, hiking, fishing, skiing. He
grew up in the mountain sides of Nevada, and by
the way, cycling at the time was a complete countercultural sport.
And the dad brought him into it and did it
with him, father and son competing. And those four goals
(07:04):
of a seventeen year old, my goodness, with the last
one being the winning of the Tour de France. When
we come back, more of the story of Greg Lemon
here on our American stories, Leah Abib here, and I'm
(07:31):
inviting you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's
two hundred and fiftieth birthday only a short time away.
If you want to help inspire countless others to love
America like we do, and want to help us bring
the inspiring and important stories told ear to millions for
years to come, please consider making a tax deductible donation
to our American Stories. Go to Alamericanstories dot com and
(07:52):
click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
any amount helps. Go to Alamericanstories dot com and give,
and we continue with our American Stories and the story
(08:13):
of Greg Lamond.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Let's pick up where we last left.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Off, because the race appeared at length on US Television's
America responded, here's Greg's father, Bob.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
We got a telegram from Roma Reagan, the President, and
a letter from him, and Greg was invited to the
White House.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So it's pretty big in that sense.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
He was really landmark in the history of the tour,
an American winning the tour because afterwards it brought more
and more English speakers into the sport of sunking and lansanstrong.
You know, God bless him, wouldn't have existed without Greg
Lemon because all of a sudden defect that Gregormund won
the tour. The word audience of the tour changed completely.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
We are choosing to celebrate this day by looking back
at the greatest year and the Tour de France is
one hundred plus year history and the American man that made.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
It so and nowest moment for Greg Lamont. His name
in ren means the world and this is the world
of breg Lamont in Parish today. The first American ever
to pull on a winner's a yellow jerney in the
Torda bron.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
But less than a year after Greg's first Tour de
France victory, this happened.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
There's turkey hunting in the United States, and turkey hunting
is the spring season. I just backed into berry bushes.
I was sitting there and I wanted to look and
see where everybody was. And when I stood up, my
brother in law happened to be up behind it. So
he shot at the first thing that moved, and that
was me.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The crazy thing.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
It didn't hurt.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I didn't know it, but my uncle said I had
a stream of blood from my neck, just pulsating out.
The steady beat.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
They called a helicopter and the helicopter pilot ended up
taking into UC Davis Medical Center.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He saved my life. If I would have had to
go by ambulance, that'd have been dead. I had pellets,
about fifty of them, and probably twenty I went right
through me and I still have thirty five in me,
you know, two of my heart, three of.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
My liver, and there's no way they can remove them.
No have chronic lead poison. It bothers me.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So the more I ride now at this stage.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The worse they get.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Greg took what should have been a career ending two
years off from cycling.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
After two years of absolute hell. I went in the
tour an underdog. Everybody wrote me off. I was racing
against a very strong Finion who won two Tour Frances
before that.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
Gregor win the stage final and win the stage. Gregor
tate yellow finel and take yellow.
Speaker 10 (10:56):
It was just every day.
Speaker 9 (10:57):
It was a great story. And then we got to
about four days ago and Finnon was now fifty seconds
ahead of Greg Lamont.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Day before the final race, he tapped me on the
shoulders and he congratulations on your second place. Now he
and I were teammates and the same coach, and that
coach told us and taught me the race is never
over to the finish line, no matter what, it's never
over to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You'd never take it for granted.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
And when he did that, I said, oh, you've lost
the race.
Speaker 10 (11:28):
At the beginning.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
It's advantage Finnon. He will start last, wearing the leaders
yellow jersey. He chases Lamond along the course two minutes back.
He'll know all the way exactly what time Greg Lamond
is doing.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I probably shouldn't say this.
Speaker 11 (11:40):
You wrote your story and you want to turn it
in quickly and then get out of there.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
A river there that the I now moved on the
right shoulder, so I wrote my story.
Speaker 11 (11:52):
You know, Laurent Fignon withstood challenge like Greg Lamont.
Speaker 9 (12:01):
You can almost see the difference in the screenful.
Speaker 8 (12:02):
It's incredible to watch a month of what do you
think that that he managed to finished back from that
to shooting accident.
Speaker 11 (12:11):
He was Fenale coming up shops in the A, everybody screaming,
and he realized some point before he made the turn
he had lost the second twelve fifty.
Speaker 8 (12:26):
The most incredible thing I think about the day of
my life, twenty fifty Blake.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
It was this universal cry of.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
The crowd had realized it.
Speaker 7 (12:40):
The Lord of Yon has got a lord of wrong.
Speaker 12 (12:43):
Like a.
Speaker 11 (12:47):
He was, this great story dropped in our laps, and
all anybody could think of was I'm not going home.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I never knew it affect him so much, And I've
learned stuff since then. In the twenty plus years after that,
he'd never gone to the chams of these.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
In his mind, he would be.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Walking to get the mail and he'd count on thousand
and one thousand and two thousand, eight seconds. I lost
by eight seconds.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I just said eight.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Gore On, you won two. Now I've won too, and
we can see next year he'll get third.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
In nineteen ninety Lamond won his third tour to France.
He looked certain to equal the Badger's record of five wins,
but the sport of cycling was about to change traumatically.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Lamon in thirty minutes behind the leaders, he quits the
race right there. By ninety two is when I really
became aware of it. Some of the rioters looked like
it was just a natural progression, where they explained it
by weight loss. Got you look back at it and
it is all lies.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Here's Greg's teammate Andy Hampston.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I saw EPO come in.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
It made phenomenal fological changes, could increase blood levels by
twenty percent. I watched individuals and then groups of individuals
and entire teams mop the floor with me and everyone
else who I knew wasn't doping.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Here's greg on Lance Armstrong now loses.
Speaker 10 (14:17):
It's a Lance Armstrong here by seven. History's almost repeted,
absolutely remarkable. But look at the face on Armstrong there.
He's come here on a mission.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
He won.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I bought into a story too with NTS coming back.
He had seven victories flightdlmentous one one, so there are
eight American victories.
Speaker 10 (14:37):
Landis gets on his bike like he's about to deliver
the newspaper.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It was pretty impressive streak there for Americas, but it
wasn't real.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's a sad part.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
His fairy tale just goes on and on.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
He's got the support of the cancer community, the sponsors,
fanatic fans, and I knew it could be suicide. Whatever
I said, I don't know who I said, but I said,
it's unbelievable, That's all I said.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Unbelieve bull.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Leman's most notorious remark was, if Lance is clean, it
is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If
he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud, his funniest.
With the drugs they have these days, one could convert
a mule into a stallion. Greg LeMond is now the
only American winner of the Tour de France. A lot
(15:36):
of cyclists and Americans thought Greg Lamond was jealous of Armstrong.
We now know better. Armstrong has been stripped of his
tour victories. This has given many all over the world
an even deeper appreciation for what the only American winner
of the Tour de France accomplished.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And I'll remember that day.
I had quite a number of friends who just were
gripped to this idea that American could win the Tour
de France. And there it was on television for the
nation to watch. July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty six. First
American to ever win perhaps the toughest event, the toughest task.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
In sporting history.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
He wins the Tour de France and in the end
opens up for generations of cyclists, generations of American cyclists,
the idea.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Of winning and competing on the global stage.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And then came that tragic accident, just a freak accident,
hunting backing into some berry bushes and his brother accidentally
shooting him. Fifty pellets scattered through his body, and he
would have been dead if he'd been taken to a
hospital by ambulance.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Luckily he was metav active chopper.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And it would be two years before what would become
one of sport's great comebacks, and he was to win
a second and then a third Tour de France. And
then the final chapter of the story, that Lance armstrong
string of victories, which had Lehmand skeptical not just of
(17:23):
Armstrong's feats, but of what he was seeing is a
massive change in the physiology of many of the athletes,
which of course was explained by the massive doping occurring
across the sport. The story of Greg LeMond, the story
of triumph, perseverance, and in the end overcoming here on
(17:46):
our American stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
In July of nineteen eighty six, Greg.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Lahman stunned the sporting world by becoming the first American
to win the Tour de France, the world's pre eminent
bicycle race, arguably the most grueling athletic contest in the world.
After his comeback victory in nineteen eighty nine, Lahman's celebrity
reached heights no one thought possible for a cyclist. He
made the cover of Sports Illustrated and was named their
(00:43):
Sportsman of the Year, a first for any cyclist. Let's
take a listen to the story, starting with the man himself,
Greg Lehman.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Our backyard was like the Alps. I was wild and
into the while. When I was eight years old, I
discovered hiking, fishing, downhill skiing. Coaches said, you know, the
best thing for skiing is cycling. I got to get
(01:13):
a bike. Cycling was a counterculture sport. I kind of
tend to not do what everybody else is doing. My
dad bought one too, so we started riding together. There
was magic to riding. Even by the end of August.
(01:35):
We did one hundred k ride and my dad and
I got to talk and we were like best friends,
like teammates.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
His early career promised greatness. Here's Greg and his father, Bob.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I had a seventy six Volkswagen van. We leave for
the Bay Area of southern California and race. They were
amateur races, but Greg was doing very well.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I won my eleven races and I'm my board sixteen
seventy years all. I went to Europe by myself for
two months with seventy five bucks in my pocket. Everybody
had this mentality that Europeans are unbeatable. They're mythical. Actually,
they're like they're from another planet. I'm thinking those Tour
France winners have to start somewhere, just like me. Two
(02:17):
races switch on. Two races in France, I won him,
went to Belgium, won six out of eight. That's when
I wrote my four goals out.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
And this is written in October of nineteen seventy eight,
which would have made him seventeen cycling goals seventy nine.
Win the Junior World Championship road race, which he did
nineteen eighty, win the Olympic road race, not possible because
of the boycott. By age twenty two win Pro World
(02:49):
Championships road race, age twenty five win the Tour de France.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Quota Broncs at the enormous crowd on I'll do it now, I'd.
Speaker 7 (02:59):
Still a great club, follows the wheel of his teammates
Ben Artino.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
There's something magic about the tour. People talk about the Olympics,
ago that's nothing compared to the Tour as an event.
Speaker 7 (03:12):
The two riders who have projected themselves without a shadow
of the doubt, as the two greatest riders in.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
This year's order France.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's a Formula one Grand Prix New York City marathon,
but doing that for twenty one days and with fifteen.
Speaker 8 (03:26):
Million people, We've got Americans going to possibly win the
Yellow Jersey for the first time.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
All little bit a toord of France in the greatest
tradition of the event.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Before these days it's gone.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
It was the nineteen eighty five Tour de France Cycling
super Bowl, where two hundred riders covered twenty two hundred
miles in three weeks, that established Greg's legendary career.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
Phil we have a chance to superhaps an American winner
here in Greg Lamont.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
Absolutely John and really for the first time Greg LeMond
is now ready to win the Toad of France and
add a little bit more history to this great sporting event.
Of course, he's adversary is his own TEAMMATEO, and he's
the man that Lemon may well have to beat to
get that final yellow jersey. When the race ends in Paris.
Speaker 9 (04:09):
You've got twenty two teams. You're with nine men on
the squad. The unique character who wins the Tour de
France has just about everything. It's very unlikely to be
more than five guys with this unique ability. You've got
to be able to climb mountains, you've got to be
able to show the descending skills at one hundred kilometers
an hour, and above all, you've got to ride the
individual time trials. We always call it the race of truth.
(04:31):
It's you against the watch. And there aren't many writers
got all that ability. So what they do is they
choose a leader who they think have that ability, put
him in as the leader of the team, and then
the others are called the kitchen help. We call them domestiques.
They'll come round you like a queen bee. Their job
is to make sure their leader is in exactly the
position when it matters to win the race, because they
(04:51):
know he can do it and they can't.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
The story in one paragraph goes like this. Greg's French
teammate Bernardino, known as the Badger, had won four Tour
de Frances and nearing the end of his career, wanted
a fifth to equal the tour record. The young Lamand
was stronger upfront.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
The argument goes on, the Mond rebelled against the team's instructions.
He angrily attempts to persuade his coat he should be
given the chance to win the all.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
But under pressure from his team and coach, he agreed
to support Eno rather than take his first victory.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
Bernardino five tour wins. The American story, of course, another
historic one for Greg Lamont from Roschall County, Nevada, a
kiss from his wife Kathy.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
In return, Eno promised to help Lamond win the Tour
de France the following year.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You know it's like, oh, no, another repeat.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
But the Badger renegged on his promise.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
But everybody feels hiding something and.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Repeatedly attacked Lamont during the race and attempts to win again.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
Laman knows now that he must take got bern Argido,
a Machi specialty, but he fell, as simply proved it
felt to be just too stop for the bad jet.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Greg's first Port of France win was achieved not only
without the support of his coach and team, but also
in the face of what many fans believed was outright hostility.
It was a cowboy, reckless and individualistic and raging against
the establishments wed an hour, but it was the right
(06:31):
move and a righteous victory.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And you've been listening to Greg Leman and to his
father tell the story of his remarkable life.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I loved what he said.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Our backyard was like the Alps, hiking, fishing, skiing. He
grew up in the mountain sides of Nevada, and by
the way, cycling at the time was a complete countercultural sport.
And the dad brought him into it and did it
with him, father and son competing. And those four goals
(07:04):
of a seventeen year old, my goodness, with the last
one being the winning of the Tour de France. When
we come back, more of the story of Greg Lemon
here on our American stories, Leah Abib here, and I'm
(07:31):
inviting you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's
two hundred and fiftieth birthday only a short time away.
If you want to help inspire countless others to love
America like we do, and want to help us bring
the inspiring and important stories told ear to millions for
years to come, please consider making a tax deductible donation
to our American Stories. Go to Alamericanstories dot com and
(07:52):
click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
any amount helps. Go to Alamericanstories dot com and give,
and we continue with our American Stories and the story
(08:13):
of Greg Lamond.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Let's pick up where we last left.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Off, because the race appeared at length on US Television's
America responded, here's Greg's father, Bob.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
We got a telegram from Roma Reagan, the President, and
a letter from him, and Greg was invited to the
White House.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So it's pretty big in that sense.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
He was really landmark in the history of the tour,
an American winning the tour because afterwards it brought more
and more English speakers into the sport of sunking and lansanstrong.
You know, God bless him, wouldn't have existed without Greg
Lemon because all of a sudden defect that Gregormund won
the tour. The word audience of the tour changed completely.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
We are choosing to celebrate this day by looking back
at the greatest year and the Tour de France is
one hundred plus year history and the American man that made.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
It so and nowest moment for Greg Lamont. His name
in ren means the world and this is the world
of breg Lamont in Parish today. The first American ever
to pull on a winner's a yellow jerney in the
Torda bron.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
But less than a year after Greg's first Tour de
France victory, this happened.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
There's turkey hunting in the United States, and turkey hunting
is the spring season. I just backed into berry bushes.
I was sitting there and I wanted to look and
see where everybody was. And when I stood up, my
brother in law happened to be up behind it. So
he shot at the first thing that moved, and that
was me.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The crazy thing.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
It didn't hurt.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I didn't know it, but my uncle said I had
a stream of blood from my neck, just pulsating out.
The steady beat.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
They called a helicopter and the helicopter pilot ended up
taking into UC Davis Medical Center.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He saved my life. If I would have had to
go by ambulance, that'd have been dead. I had pellets,
about fifty of them, and probably twenty I went right
through me and I still have thirty five in me,
you know, two of my heart, three of.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
My liver, and there's no way they can remove them.
No have chronic lead poison. It bothers me.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So the more I ride now at this stage.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The worse they get.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Greg took what should have been a career ending two
years off from cycling.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
After two years of absolute hell. I went in the
tour an underdog. Everybody wrote me off. I was racing
against a very strong Finion who won two Tour Frances
before that.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
Gregor win the stage final and win the stage. Gregor
tate yellow finel and take yellow.
Speaker 10 (10:56):
It was just every day.
Speaker 9 (10:57):
It was a great story. And then we got to
about four days ago and Finnon was now fifty seconds
ahead of Greg Lamont.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Day before the final race, he tapped me on the
shoulders and he congratulations on your second place. Now he
and I were teammates and the same coach, and that
coach told us and taught me the race is never
over to the finish line, no matter what, it's never
over to the finish line.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You'd never take it for granted.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
And when he did that, I said, oh, you've lost
the race.
Speaker 10 (11:28):
At the beginning.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
It's advantage Finnon. He will start last, wearing the leaders
yellow jersey. He chases Lamond along the course two minutes back.
He'll know all the way exactly what time Greg Lamond
is doing.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I probably shouldn't say this.
Speaker 11 (11:40):
You wrote your story and you want to turn it
in quickly and then get out of there.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
A river there that the I now moved on the
right shoulder, so I wrote my story.
Speaker 11 (11:52):
You know, Laurent Fignon withstood challenge like Greg Lamont.
Speaker 9 (12:01):
You can almost see the difference in the screenful.
Speaker 8 (12:02):
It's incredible to watch a month of what do you
think that that he managed to finished back from that
to shooting accident.
Speaker 11 (12:11):
He was Fenale coming up shops in the A, everybody screaming,
and he realized some point before he made the turn
he had lost the second twelve fifty.
Speaker 8 (12:26):
The most incredible thing I think about the day of
my life, twenty fifty Blake.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
It was this universal cry of.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
The crowd had realized it.
Speaker 7 (12:40):
The Lord of Yon has got a lord of wrong.
Speaker 12 (12:43):
Like a.
Speaker 11 (12:47):
He was, this great story dropped in our laps, and
all anybody could think of was I'm not going home.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I never knew it affect him so much, And I've
learned stuff since then. In the twenty plus years after that,
he'd never gone to the chams of these.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
In his mind, he would be.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Walking to get the mail and he'd count on thousand
and one thousand and two thousand, eight seconds. I lost
by eight seconds.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I just said eight.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Gore On, you won two. Now I've won too, and
we can see next year he'll get third.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
In nineteen ninety Lamond won his third tour to France.
He looked certain to equal the Badger's record of five wins,
but the sport of cycling was about to change traumatically.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Lamon in thirty minutes behind the leaders, he quits the
race right there. By ninety two is when I really
became aware of it. Some of the rioters looked like
it was just a natural progression, where they explained it
by weight loss. Got you look back at it and
it is all lies.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Here's Greg's teammate Andy Hampston.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I saw EPO come in.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
It made phenomenal fological changes, could increase blood levels by
twenty percent. I watched individuals and then groups of individuals
and entire teams mop the floor with me and everyone
else who I knew wasn't doping.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Here's greg on Lance Armstrong now loses.
Speaker 10 (14:17):
It's a Lance Armstrong here by seven. History's almost repeted,
absolutely remarkable. But look at the face on Armstrong there.
He's come here on a mission.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
He won.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I bought into a story too with NTS coming back.
He had seven victories flightdlmentous one one, so there are
eight American victories.
Speaker 10 (14:37):
Landis gets on his bike like he's about to deliver
the newspaper.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It was pretty impressive streak there for Americas, but it
wasn't real.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's a sad part.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
His fairy tale just goes on and on.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
He's got the support of the cancer community, the sponsors,
fanatic fans, and I knew it could be suicide. Whatever
I said, I don't know who I said, but I said,
it's unbelievable, That's all I said.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Unbelieve bull.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Leman's most notorious remark was, if Lance is clean, it
is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If
he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud, his funniest.
With the drugs they have these days, one could convert
a mule into a stallion. Greg LeMond is now the
only American winner of the Tour de France. A lot
(15:36):
of cyclists and Americans thought Greg Lamond was jealous of Armstrong.
We now know better. Armstrong has been stripped of his
tour victories. This has given many all over the world
an even deeper appreciation for what the only American winner
of the Tour de France accomplished.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And I'll remember that day.
I had quite a number of friends who just were
gripped to this idea that American could win the Tour
de France. And there it was on television for the
nation to watch. July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty six. First
American to ever win perhaps the toughest event, the toughest task.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
In sporting history.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
He wins the Tour de France and in the end
opens up for generations of cyclists, generations of American cyclists,
the idea.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Of winning and competing on the global stage.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And then came that tragic accident, just a freak accident,
hunting backing into some berry bushes and his brother accidentally
shooting him. Fifty pellets scattered through his body, and he
would have been dead if he'd been taken to a
hospital by ambulance.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Luckily he was metav active chopper.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And it would be two years before what would become
one of sport's great comebacks, and he was to win
a second and then a third Tour de France. And
then the final chapter of the story, that Lance armstrong
string of victories, which had Lehmand skeptical not just of
(17:23):
Armstrong's feats, but of what he was seeing is a
massive change in the physiology of many of the athletes,
which of course was explained by the massive doping occurring
across the sport. The story of Greg LeMond, the story
of triumph, perseverance, and in the end overcoming here on
(17:46):
our American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!