Greg LeMond: The Last Rider

Sunday Morning - A podcast by RNZ

The Tour de France is one of the world's great sporting events and in the minds of most cycling journalists, the best-ever race of the Tour took place in 1989 when American Greg Lemond made one of the greatest comebacks in the history of sport, with dozen of shotgun pellets in his body and carrying a terrible secret in his heart. His winning margin in the end was 8 seconds, after racing more than 3,000 kilometres. He was 50 seconds behind as the last short sprint into Paris began. Against him were two recent former champions, Laurent Fignon and Pedro Delgado. That incredible race is now the subject of a new documentary The Last Rider , out in cinemas throughout NZ. Greg LeMond won the Tour three times and the World Road Race Championships twice and he joins us from Knoxville, Tennessee.