Page 28 - Sonoma County Gazette July 2018

The Comeback: Greg LeMond
By Daniel de Visé
Not long after I started writing books for a living, I realized that a lot of my
own favorite books were works of narrative nonfiction: Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit. Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea. Daniel James Brown’s The Boys in the Boat.
an idealistic young cyclist aspiring to race in Europe.
That was precisely LeMond’s dream. He went to Europe, joined a
As a practical matter, the first step is for you to get organized, as you will need to create and track a lot of information. I suggest you pick up one of those spiral notebooks or create a separate file on your computer as the information and documents will procreate overnight when you are not looking, just
like rabbits. Next, you must report the identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can create an FTC Identity Theft Report by going on their website (www.identitytheft.gov). The FTC also has a handy checklist of your legal rights and options, which include your right:
I wanted to write one myself, but I needed the right story. It came to me one summer day in 2015 as I walked around my leafy neighborhood outside Washington D.C.
DEAR READERS: Do you have a legal question on your mind? If so, please email me at debra@newbylawoffice.com. Your name will remain confidential. This Q & A Legal Column is intended as a community service to discuss general legal principles and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Dear Debra:
Last month the unthinkable happened. Some crook stole my “identity” and opened credit card accounts in my name. Before I knew it, the thief purchased over $12,000 in goods. What are my rights?
Dear Frank:
Recreational cyclists whiz up and down our street en route to Beach Drive, a winding two-lane road that snakes along Rock Creek from the Maryland suburbs into the District. I think it was one of them who made me think of Greg LeMond.
Signed: Fuming Frank
LeMond was born in Lakewood, California, grew up near Reno and emerged in the 1970s as a freakishly talented bicycle racer in Northern California. With shaggy blond hair, piercing blue eyes and a puppy-dog way, LeMond might easily be mistaken for his fictional counterpart in the movie Breaking Away, which came out during LeMond’s teens and portrayed
What a nightmare! Identity theft is truly a headache. You will consume extensive energy and time to get it all straightened out. First, realize that things will not smooth out overnight. It may take months, even longer, to resume some sense of normalcy in your financial affairs.
professional cycling team and, in 1986, became the first American to win the vaunted Tour de France. I grew up idolizing Greg LeMond. My father was a Belgian immigrant who had raced bicycles as a young man. He and I attended weekly races at a track outside Chicago. Bicycling, rather than baseball, was our household sport.
1) to place a 90-day initial fraud alert on your credit report;
2) to get free copies of your credit report;
3) to get fraudulent information blocked from your credit report; and
4) to stop a debt collector from contacting you.
The law also places a limit on your responsibility for fraudulent debts, so
Most other Americans didn’t realize quite what LeMond had accomplished. Prior to the 1980s, no American had even entered the Tour. His feat was akin to a French kid traveling to New York, joining the Yankees and leading them to the World Series. Now, the cycling world expected big things of LeMond. He expected big things of himself. Yet, before he could enter the 1987 Tour to defend his title, LeMond nearly died. He was shot, accidentally, on a hunting trip outside Sacramento. Airlifted to the UC Davis hospital, he came within twenty minutes of bleeding out.
rest assured that you will not be responsible for the $12,000 debt if the identity theft is reported timely. Generally, if a new credit card account is opened in your name without your permission, you are not responsible for any of the debt incurred. It is vital, absolutely vital, that you look at every credit card statement as time is of the essence in reporting any suspicious activity to the credit card company or bank. If the loss is reported within two days from when you learn about the loss, you may be responsible for up to $50. If the loss is reported more than two days, but less than 60 calendar days, you may be responsible for up to $500.00. If the loss is reported more than 60 calendar days after you receive your statement, you may be on the hook for the whole enchilada.
Now, think about it: What athlete in a physically demanding sport has ever come back from an injury like that to compete at the top level?
LeMond did. A painful and frustrating comeback stretched through the 1988 season into 1989, when, finally, LeMond rediscovered his top form.
Identity Theft is prevalent, especially with the Equifax data breach which involved the stealing of personal data of some 448 million customers. Another practical tip (which may be too late for your current situation, Frank, but should be seriously considered by everyone else) is to freeze your credit report. It is very easy to do. One need only contact all three of the credit reporting agencies and provide vital and confidential information (and make sure you record the Username and PIN that will be generated, as you will need this to lift the freeze). Caution: If you are planning on a big purchase, like a home/ mortgage or a vehicle, do not freeze your credit report until after the loan is secured. The credit freeze is free until June 30, 2018. After that, the credit reporting agencies may charge a fee (unless the deadline is extended again).
In July 1989, LeMond was finally ready to defend his Tour title, which
was now three years old. He faced off against Laurent Fignon, a reserved, bespectacled Frenchman who was probably the most talented cyclist of his era apart from LeMond. The two men staged a battle for the ages. On the final day of racing, LeMond came back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit to win the Tour by a margin of eight seconds, the closest finish—even now—in more than a century of Le Tour.
Narrative nonfiction is all about conflict: A hero overcomes long odds to conquer the mountain, or the sea, or the race.
By the time he retired from cycling in 1994, LeMond had done plenty of that. But one final conflict yet lay ahead. In 2001, LeMond squared off against Lance Armstrong, the brash Texan who would win seven Tours to LeMond’s three. At the very peak of Armstrong’s career, LeMond accused him of doping. The two feuded for a decade. Armstrong and his backers wielded their enormous influence to exile LeMond from the cycling sport.
Contact all three reporting agencies:
Finally, in 2012, Armstrong went down. When the dust cleared, LeMond was again recognized as the true king of American cycling. That became my story. It was great story, and one most Americans had forgotten. LeMond had enjoyed
a brief fame in the 1980s, but then Armstrong had eclipsed him to become the most celebrated American athlete of his generation. Armstrong, too, had come back from near-death (of testicular cancer) to win the Tour.
• For Equifax, call 800-685-1111 or visit www.equifax.com
• For Experian, call 888-397-3742 or visit www.experian.com/freeze
• For TransUnion, call 800-888-4213 or visit transunion.com/credit-freeze. You have every right to be mad and fuming, Frank. Identity Theft is serious
Debra A. Newby resides near the Russian River and has practiced law for 36 years. She is a member of the California, Texas and Sonoma County Bar Associations and currently maintains an active law office in Santa Rosa which emphasizes personal injury law (bicycle/motorcycle/motor vehicle accidents, dog bites, trip and falls, etc.) and expungements (clearing criminal records). Debra can be reached via email(debra@ newbylawoffice.com), phone (707-526-7200), or fax (526-7202).
stuff. Perhaps your misfortune will motivate others to pay closer attention to their credit card statements and even activate a credit freeze. “We boil at different degrees”, so observed Ralph Emerson. I do hope your water cools down shortly, Frank, and you can get on with your beautiful life.
And now, Armstrong’s narrative had been discredited, clearing the way for the public to rediscover LeMond.
Daniel de Visé is author of The Comeback: Greg LeMond, published this month by Atlantic Monthly Press. He will speak at 7 p.m. on July 9 at Copperfield’s Books in Santa Rosa. For more info, visit www.danieldevise.com.
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