Bernard Hinault

Bernard Hinault after winning the 1978 Tour de France

Selle Italia "Turbo" model "Bernard Hinault"

Bernard Hinault (born November 14, 1954 in Yffiniac in Brittany ) is a former French cyclist . Between 1978 and 1985, Hinault, known by the French population due to his tactical cleverness, Le Blaireau ("the badger") was the third rider to win five Tour de France wins . He won a total of 28 stages there and only Eddy Merckx (34) and Mark Cavendish (30) have even more successes of the day. Hinault is after his Tour de France victory in 1985 the last Frenchman since then to win the competition.

Cycling career

Hinault started his professional racing career in 1974. He achieved a total of 28 stage wins (13 of them in time trials ). Like Jacques Anquetil (1964), Eddy Merckx (1974) and Miguel Indurain (1995), he has achieved five tour victories ( 1978 , 1979 , 1981 , 1982 and 1985 ), with second place in 1984 and 1986 . Bernard Hinault was able to win all three Grand Tours several times: in 1980, 1982 and 1985 he won the Giro d'Italia , in 1978 and 1983 he won the Vuelta a España .

With more than 200 victories in his twelve-year career, Hinault was a real all-rounder and was also able to prevail in one-day races . In 1980 he won the road cycling world championship . He was able to record further victories in the classics such as Paris – Roubaix (1981), Liège – Bastogne – Liège (1977 and 1980) and the Tour of Lombardy (1979 and 1984). Four times in a row (1978-1981) he was chosen by the sports newspaper L'Équipe as France's Sportsman of the Year (“ Champion des champions ”).

Grand Tour	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986
Vuelta a España	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-
Giro d'Italia	-	-	1	-	1	-	-	1	-
Tour de France	1	1	DNF	1	1	-	2	1	2

Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

Monument to cycling	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986
Milan – Sanremo	54	-	-	-	7th	-	-	-	-	DNF	-	-
Tour of Flanders	-	-	DNS	11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Paris – Roubaix	-	-	-	13	11	4th	1	9	-	-	-	-
Liège – Bastogne – Liège	-	-	1	-	2	1	18th	-	32	19th	18th	-
Lombardy tour	-	17th	-	3	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	-

Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout. DNS: did not start , reported but not started.

After the active career

Hinault retired from active professional cycling in 1986. In the same year he received the highest ranking award in France, membership of the Legion of Honor, from François Mitterrand . Today Bernard Hinault breeds on his farm in Calorguen near Dinan Charolais -Rinder and works in public relations for the organizing team of the Tour de France (ASO), which makes it at the award ceremonies regularly one of the first to congratulate the driver. Neither of his two sons became a professional cyclist, but one of them also works as a logistics manager in the organization team.

In March 2016, Hinault announced that he would retire from the ASO after the 2016 Tour de France to enjoy his retirement.

Web links

Commons : Bernard Hinault  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Palmarès - List of achievements and placements
• Bernard Hinault in the Tour de France database(French / English )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernard Hinault. Le PELOTON des SOUVENIRS . Editions Robert Laffont, Paris 1988, p. 224 (French).
2. ↑ Hinault stops as master of ceremonies in the Tour de France. In: rad-net.de. March 9, 2016, accessed March 11, 2016 . 

literature

• Jean Paul Brouchon: HINAULT par HINAULT , Editions Jacob Duvernet, Paris, 2005. (French)