Cyclist
Pro race history: Bernard Hinault turns puncheur at Paris-Nice
Bernard Hinault is remembered for a lot of things. In a professional career spanning just over a decade he won five Tour de France titles (with 28 stages along the way), three Giros, two Vueltas, two Lombardias, two Lièges – including one in biblical conditions – and one world championship.
There was also the punch.
The warm-up
La Vie Claire’s Hinault arrived at Paris-Nice having abandoned Omloop Het Volk a few days prior. The race packed in seven stages in just four days thanks to a prologue and a pair of split stages (including a Mont Ventoux stage finish coming only halfway through a day). Heading into Stage 5, Peugeot’s Robert Millar was in the lead.
That day was a 174.5km stage from Miramas to La Seyne-Sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur. On the descent of the Col de l’Espigoulier, just east of Marseille, Hinault pushed hard to shake off Millar, and would eventually do so while drawing out a group of 20 other riders.
The punch
Hinault and the leading group had a roughly 45-second gap but soon encountered a road blocked by protesters from a shipyard in La Ciotat, about 35km from the finish.
Video footage confirms what happens next: Hinault, in the yellow and red colours of his La Vie Claire jersey, winds his right arm back to throw a punch at a man dressed in a white jacket and jeans. Leaflets are flying through the air. He goes for the same man again briefly but is stopped by someone pulling him back, he then holds on to a Panasonic rider. Bernard Rapp, a news reporter for Antenne 2 (now France 2) described it as ‘pugilism’ – i.e. boxing.
Apparently Hinault briefly considered abandoning before the stage resumed, continued and finished third behind Eddy Planckaert and Sean Kelly.
The one that got away
The Badger would ultimately finish third overall, down 1min 46sec on Sean Kelly for his third of seven consecutive years on the top spot.
Despite a glittering career with most big races on his palmarès, Hinault never won Paris-Nice. The closest he came was second in the 1978 edition.
However the punch remains engrained in cycling history.
The post Pro race history: Bernard Hinault turns puncheur at Paris-Nice appeared first on Cyclist.