It Won’t Be the Best Race LeMond Has Had : Bicycle racing: Tour de France winner isn’t feeling well again heading into the Tour de Trump.

“As the Wheel Turns” continues with Greg LeMond . . .

We last left our intrepid cyclist facing a calamitous series of events after becoming the first American to win the Tour de France in 1986.

He was shot in April of 1987 while hunting turkeys near Sacramento. About two months later he had an appendectomy, and his 1987 season was ruined. His training for 1988 went smoothly until he crashed in a race at Belgium in May. He had arthroscopic surgery, and again raced poorly.

He returned last year only to discover he had an iron deficiency that left him listless early in the season.

In last summer’s Tour de Italy, LeMond struggled even on small hills.

“At one point in that race, I was so close to quitting for good,” he told journalist James Raia. “You don’t know how close.”

Then came the Tour de France, in which LeMond overcame a 50-second deficit on the final day to defeat Laurent Fignon of France in one of the year’s most compelling moments in sport.

He finished the summer by winning the road race World Championships.

Ready for 1990?

LeMond, 28, started the European season 15 pounds overweight. He entered 25 races in five weeks beginning in February, but had to bypass most of the spring season after contracting a viral infection.

Then there was a bizarre incident in which LeMond’s custom-made cycling shoes were stolen before a race. His stock replacements gave him sore feet.

LeMond, who resides in Kortrijk, Belgium, went to his U.S. home in Wayzata, Minn., to recover and prepare for the Tour de Trump, an 11-day race that starts today at Wilmington, Del.

He was feeling better before entering last weekend’s 54-mile duPont Pro Cycling Series tuneup at Washington, D.C.

But LeMond arrived in Washington last Thursday complaining of hay fever.

By the time the race started Sunday, he was suffering from food poisoning, said Nathan Jenkins, his attorney.

With 11 laps left, LeMond dropped out.

LeMond, who signed a three-year contract estimated at $5.5 million with French-based Z team after last summer’s dramatic Tour de France victory, skipped Wednesday’s news conference in Wilmington because he was still recuperating in Minnesota.

“He has not had a great beginning because of all the pressures,” Jenkins said from Reno.

“He will try to accommodate everyone, and that makes it difficult to train at the same time. He’ll never say no to the public. He’ll sign every autograph. But that always wears you down in a sport that requires such high levels of conditioning.

“But Greg seems to thrive on adversity. When he seems to be having his most problems he does his best.”

In other words, do not discount LeMond’s power of recuperation. But none of the experts think he has much chance of winning the second Tour de Trump, a 1,107-mile race ending in Boston May 13. LeMond finished 27th last year, his worst placing in 10 years of professional racing in the United States.

Viatcheslav Ekimov of Leningrad and Steve Bauer of Ontario, Canada, are considered the favorites.

The 133-rider field includes former Tour of Switzerland and Tour of Italy champion Andy Hampsten of Boulder, Colo.; Bauer, a three-time top-10 finisher in the Tour de France; Raul Alcala of Monterey, Mexico, who placed eighth in the 1989 Tour de France, and 1984 Olympic road race champion Alexi Grewal of Boulder.

Ten professional teams, including the powerful PDM and Panasonic-Sportlife, both of the Netherlands, and nine seven-member amateur teams representing the United States, Canada, France, New Zealand, Sweden, West Germany and the Soviet Union are entered.

The tour, modeled after European-style racing, has a 3.1-mile prologue in Wilmington and 13 stages. The tour has circuit races in Lehigh Valley, Pa., and New York, eight road races, a team time trial in Richmond, Va., a criterium in Baltimore, and an individual time trial in Lehigh Valley. The cyclist with the lowest total time will win.

Although in its second year, the Tour de Trump is championed as the United States’ premier bicycle race.

“A lot of people said we pulled off a miracle last year,” said Michael Plant, the tour’s executive director.

That might not be an exaggeration considering Americans’ lack of interest in serious cycling.

Last year, the townsfolk of such cities as Allentown, Pa., lined their streets in European tradition to cheer Tour de Trump competitors.

“I think the riders were caught off guard by the entire event last year,” Plant said. “We knew that this was an opportunity that cycling was hoping for for 15 years. I wasn’t going to waste that.”

Despite the ostentatious name, the formula seemed to work. And perhaps because of the name, it continues to gain recognition.

Tradition dictates these races are named after respective countries, not billionaire sponsors.

But Donald Trump’s empire provided sound backing to lure Europe’s best teams. And his personal problems--Marla Maples, Ivana Trump and all that--bring added attention.

If it is true that there is no such thing as bad publicity, then the Tour de Trump is thriving.

The race--and name--was proposed by basketball announcer Billy Packer and Plant, an executive with the U.S. Cycling Federation.

“When it was initially stated, I practically fell out of my seat,” Trump once said. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? I will get killed in the media if you use that name.’ ”

But after a pause, Trump added, “It’s so wild, it’s got to work.”

Plant said the name will stay.

“We’re all extremely comfortable,” he said. “Two people made an impact in world of cycling last year--Greg LeMond and Donald Trump.”

The fact the tour offers $250,000 in prize money has helped.

But besides the money, Plant said the cyclists appreciated the care they received, a facet he plans to continue.

And they enjoyed the ride. Cyclists found the East Coast countryside to be one of the tour’s most engaging elements. This year’s race will traverse the Catskill, Pocono and Blue Ridge mountains. It connects such quaint towns as Charlottesville, Va., Lehigh Valley, and New Paltz, N.Y.

Europe’s cyclists are used to riding the rough Alpine terrain of France, Italy and Switzerland. The difficulty of the Trump course surprised them.

Last year, however, the hill work ended at Charlottesville, Va., and the final stages were relatively flat. Plant said competitors complained the finish was too easy and gave early leaders an advantage.

Organizers agreed, and changed the course. Now, the tour’s most feared ascent--the Devil’s Kitchen--comes during the second-to-last stage.

The three-mile stretch of country road in southern New York has a 15% grade and peaks at 1,840 feet. Some of last year’s competitors walked up the grade.

“I think it looks harder at the end this year,” said Dag Otto Lauritzen of Norway, last year’s winner who suffered a broken bone in his hand when he crashed in Belgium in March.

“We’ve created an entirely new event and route,” Plant said.

Whether the revamped course succeeds will be better known after Sunday’s stage from Richmond to Charlottesville. The riders will face their first hills in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

After that, they have a week’s more racing before they can say it is all downhill.

THE TOUR DE TRUMP 1990 RACE SCHEDULE START: May 3, Prologue Time Trial: Wilmington, Del. 1. May 4, Road Race: Wilmington to Baltimore 2. May 4, Criterium: Baltimore 3. May 5, Road Race: Fredericksburg, Va. to Richmond, Va. 4. May 5, Team Time Trial at Richmond 5. May 6, Road Race: Richmond to Charlottesville, Va. 6. May 7, Road Race: Charlottesville to Winchester, Va. 7. May 8, Road Race: Winchester to Harrisburg, Pa. 8. May 9. Time Trial: Near Allentown 9. May 9, Circuit Race: Lehigh Valley, Pa. 10. May 10, Road Race: Stroudsburg to New Paltz, N.Y. 11. May 11, Circuit Race: New York City. 12. May 12, Road Race: Catskill, N.Y. to Albany, N.Y. 13. May 13, Road Race: Northampton to FINISH in Boston