Conference noted::bicycle

    Page 3 of the Globe's sports section (page 79 in my edition)
    says (briefly):
    
    "fair condition after being hit in the back with a shotgun blast
    during a hunting trip.
    
    "He should recover from all injuries and they should not affect
    his performance as an athlete said Dr Sandy Beal, one of 3 surgeons
    involved in the two-hour operation.
    
    ... would be hospitalized for 1 to 2 wks and able to resume cycling
    practice in a couple of months.
    
    Companion, Patrick Blades, fired a shotgun at a running rabbit
    accidentally shooting Mr Lemond.

        ... were hunting in rural Lincoln, about 20 mi NE of Sacremento.
    No charges filed.
    
    Blades who was emotionally distressed ... was transported to
    Roseville Community Hosp. for observation.
    
    No mention is made of the name of the hospital where Greg was traken.
    
    Lemond had been sidelined with a wrist fracture suffered a month
    ago in a race in Italy.

                          By STEVE GEISSINGER
                        Associated Press Writer
   SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Greg LeMond, the only American to win
the Tour de France bicycle race, has been wounded in a hunting
accident but surgeons say he should be able to resume his career.
   Placer County sheriff's Capt. Larry Newman said LeMond, 25,
found himself in the line of fire Monday morning when a friend
fired a shotgun at a turkey near Lincoln, about 20 miles northeast
of Sacramento.
   Surgeons said 10 to 30 pellets of unknown caliber struck him in
the right side and back above the kidney area.
   Rushed to the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in
Sacramento within an hour by California Highway Patrol helicopter,
LeMond underwent two hours of surgery.
   The hospital said he was in fair condition this morning.
   Dr. Sandy Beal, lead surgeon of the three who operated on him,
told reporters Monday afternoon that ``He should recover from all
injuries ... and it should not affect his abilities as an athlete.''
   Beal said LeMond should be able to and resume training in a
month or two for his competitive career.
   She said the pellets had been fired from ``fairly far range,''
but they traveled through to his chest, puncturing two small holes
each in his diaphragm, liver and small intestine, bruising a kidney
which caused some bleeding. But no blood transfusions were required.
   Neither she nor Newman knew the gauge of the shotgun or pellet
size involved.
   LeMond's other kidney has functioned for years at only 10
percent of normal, said hospital spokeswoman Marci Johnson, who
added that the surgeons believe the damaged kidney will swiftly
recover.
   Beal said she did not expect any other complications from the
injury. ``He is young and in very good condition.''
   Newman said the blast was apparently fired by one of LeMond's
two companions, Patrick Blades, ``who was emotionally distressed
due to the accident and was transported to Roseville Community
Hospital for observation.'' No charges were filed.
   LeMond's father, Bob LeMond, a Reno real estate agent, told
reporters, ``Evidently, Greg was on the other side of some thick
berry bushes and there were some turkeys there, and Pat shot what
he thought was a turkey, and he hit Greg.''
   Bob LeMond said Blades is his son's brother-in-law, and the
third person, Rodney Barber, is his uncle. They were hunting on
land owned by Barber.
   The father said, ``He was supposed to be back in Europe on
Thursday and had a race next Sunday in Switzerland. He was going to
be hunting until about 9 a.m. or so and then he was going to train
by riding from Lincoln to Rancho Murieta - about 40 miles.''
   LeMond's recovery period left his participation in mid-year
racing events in question.
   After winning the coveted 24-day, 2,500-mile Tour de France last
July, LeMond told an interviewer he would like to race in Europe
another five years.
   In 1981 and 1985, LeMond won the 1,065-mile Coors Classic race
through California, Nevada and Colorado, the top American cycling
event.
   He ranked fourth in The Associated Press Athlete of the Year
voting in 1986.
   LeMond had been recovering from a wrist fracture received a
month ago in a race in Italy and was expected to be temporarily
sidelined.
   LeMond grew up in Washoe Valley, south of Reno, Nev. With his
wife Kathy, 26, and their son Geoffrey, 3, he lives there part of
the time, and part of the time in Rancho Murieta east of
Sacramento. But the family lives about eight months a year in
Kortrijk, Belgium, near the European bicycle scene.
   Kathy was reported pregnant and a patient in another Sacramento
hospital, but not in labor. She requested that no information on
her condition be released.
    

    	Anybody heard anything more about his progress? I haven't
    	seen or heard a thing.
    
    	Scott

    
    	The good news is that the Turkeys and Rabbits got away from
    the clowns with the guns that day.  The even better news is that
    one of the clowns with a gun managed to hit another gun carrying
    clown, though he didn't actually kill him.
    

    re .4  You a vegatarian ?  If not, where's that concern for the
    cows/calves/chickens/lambs/fish ?  Eh ?  :})

    
    	re .5	Whether I am vegetarian or not has nothing to do with
    how I feel about shooting animals for "sport".   I don't believe
    in the calous slaughter of cabbages for "fun" either.  None of this
    has anything to do with my opinion of Lemond as a competitive athlete
    either.  So, where is my concern for the useless destruction of
    life ?  its with me all the time, that's where it is, how about
    you ?
    
    	Reg
    

    Where did it say they were not going to eat them?
    

        re .7	Well, since you ask, I don't recall any mention of them
    being out to, "hunt for provivions", or any similar term either.
    So, I guess I just assumed they were killin' for fun.  I also assume
    that LeMond is above subsistence level and doesn't have to do his
    own plowing, planting and picking either.
    
    	Reg
    
    

    I too am above the poverty level but i do enjoy the taste and change
    of wild game in my diet. Is not the real issue one of an ANTI-GUN
    attitude? In that case we better switch to soapbox or firearms
    notes. Funny how people get all in an uproar about someone hunting
    and killing poor little animals but dont mind killing them off by
    by destroying their habitat with their new home in the country
    soon to be suburbs. Kinda narrow minded huh?
    
    -jerry
    

	ENOUGH ALREADY!

	Any future replies on the subject of guns and hunting will be
	deleted.  This conference is about bicycles!

				-John A. Wasser
				Your Moderator

See Reg?     See what you started?     Now       BEHAVE YOURSELF!
    
    
    Rewinding  to  BOT ( beginning of topic) 
    (...pause while topic rewinds....)      	 Has anyone heard
    how Greg is doing? I have been traveling a bit recently, and haven't
    been plugged into the normal news channels. I certainly haven't
    heard anything since the day or two after the accident happened.

    
    	Well, if we *REALLY* have to get back on the subject then I
    suppose we must.  Last I heard it was much worse than originally
    reported, something about a cover up, something about shotgun pellets
    in/near/around the heart.
    
    	Reg

        
    	(What does this reply have to do with bicycling ?  Nothing,
    but its the kinda stuff you want to hear, right ?, though it may
    not be "good" news for the assass<err, victim, umm "bicycling sports
    personality", hows that ?)
        

There was a picture in Monday's Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL
of Greg Lemond taking his first ride after being shot.  No
story, just the picture and caption.  I couldn't see any
gaping holes, so apparently he has recovered somewhat.

	- Lee

    	I taped the Paris-Roubaix (sp?) race yesterday. They
    	had a short segment about Greg, showing him riding with
    	his family.
    
    	I assume he'll be back on the scene pretty soon.
    
    	Scott

    A report in this morning's Globe said that he just had an
    appendectomy and will probably mean that he will not compete in
    the World's this year.
    
    ed