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How Bernard Hinault became the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France
The year is 1985. The wreckage of the Titanic is discovered, Back to the Future hits cinemas and Bernard Hinault becomes the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France for at least 40 years.
The first Grand Tour of the season began favourably for Hinault and La Vie Claire. He returned to the Giro d’Italia after a two-year absence and was one of the favourites thanks to his two previous maglia rosa victories. He came close to a win on Stage 4 in the Dolomites, being outsprinted by Hubert Seiz, and moved up to second overall. The pink jersey would sit on his shoulders after victory in the individual time-trial on Stage 12 and there it would remain as he secured his third Giro title.
The 1985 Tour began in Brittany with 22 stages, including a split stage and a prologue. It would take riders through the Vosges and Jura mountains into the Alps, the Massif Central and towards the Pyrenees before ending on the Champs-Élysées. Hinault was a favourite going in having already won four Tours and was eyeing the record. Another favourite was teammate Greg LeMond, the 24-year-old American who had already won the Road Race World Championship title and youth classification at the Tour.
The race began with the 6km prologue and Hinault rode into the race lead, however he would lose the maillot jaune to Eric Vanderaerden of Panasonic-Merckx-Agu the next day. Such was the strength of his time-trialling though that he reclaimed the lead after winning the Stage 8 ITT by over two minutes. It was now a La Vie Claire 1-2 at the top of the standings, with LeMond trailing by 2min 23sec.
Hinault’s advantage swelled to four minutes after Stage 11 when he distanced the field alongside with Café de Colombia’s Lucho Herrera. Despite not winning the Stage 13 ITT, a deficit of over a minute to Vanderaerden on the day would do nothing to the overall standings and Hinault continued his quest for another Tour victory. A brief scare the following day saw him crash near the finish line in Saint-Etienne. Blood poured from his face. He had broken his nose and later developed bronchitis.
Teammate LeMond meanwhile slashed the deficit on Stage 17, which featured the Col du Tourmalet before a summit on Luz-Ardiden. It was here on the final mountain stage that Hinault began to struggle. LeMond meanwhile was far ahead in a group with third placed Stephen Roche. Let the American loose or defend the man in yellow? Their team car pulled up. There was an exchange of words. LeMond had been told to ride with Roche but not help him, misled at the time gap between himself and Hinault. He gesticulated at the instructions in frustration. Ahead, Pedro Delgado would claim stage honours and LeMond crossed the line almost three minutes down with Hinault arriving a minute later.
The hierarchy was settled with a handful of stages including a time-trial and processional day to come. On Stage 21’s 45.7km ITT, LeMond beat Hinault by five seconds. As they arrived in Paris for the last stage, Hinault would win his record-equalling fifth Tour title to go alongside Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx, in the end beating LeMond by 1min 42sec.
Since then, a few French riders have finished on the podium at their home race. Laurent Fignon came agonisingly close to victory in 1989, losing to LeMond by just eight seconds. It remains the smallest winning margin in Tour history. Bardet raced to second and third overall in 2016 and 2017. But after 40 years, France still waits.
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