Bernard Hinault

Bernard Hinault, born 14 November 1954, is a retired French road racing cyclist. He won 147 professional races, among them five Tours de France, and is widely considered one of the sport's all-time greats. Over his career, he started thirteen Grand Tours. He was forced to abandon one while leading, finished second twice, and won the other ten—just one short of Eddy Merckx's record. No rider since Hinault has won more than seven Grand Tours.

Hinault began cycling as an amateur in Brittany. After a strong amateur run, he turned professional in 1975 with the Gitane–Campagnolo team. His breakthrough came in 1977, when he won both Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. In 1978, he claimed his first two Grand Tours: the Vuelta a España and the Tour de France. He dominated the following years, adding another Tour win in 1979 and the Giro d'Italia in 1980. A knee injury forced him out of the 1980 Tour while he was leading, but he came back to win the World Championship road race later that year. He won the Tour again in 1981, then completed his first Giro-Tour double in 1982.

After winning the 1983 Vuelta a España, his knee problems flared up, causing him to miss that year's Tour, which was won by teammate Laurent Fignon. Tensions within the Renault team led Hinault to join La Vie Claire. In the 1984 Tour, he lost to Fignon by more than ten minutes. He rebounded in 1985, winning another Giro-Tour double with help from teammate Greg LeMond. The 1986 Tour saw an internal rivalry with LeMond, who took his first of three Tour victories. Hinault retired at the end of that season. He remains the most recent French winner of the men's Tour de France. After cycling, he turned to farming and served as an enforcer for Tour de France organizers until 2016.

Throughout his career, Hinault was known as "Le Blaireau" (The Badger), a nickname he embraced because of the animal's aggressive nature, which he mirrored on the bike. In the peloton, he acted as the patron, controlling the races he entered.

**Early life and family** Hinault was born on 14 November 1954 in the Breton village of Yffiniac, the second of four children of Joseph and Lucie Hinault. The family lived in a cottage called La Clôture, built shortly after his birth. His parents were farmers, and the children helped with harvests. His father later worked as a platelayer for the national railway, SNCF. Hinault was a "hyperactive" child, nicknamed "little hooligan" by his mother. He was not a strong student but attended technical college in Saint-Brieuc for an engineering apprenticeship. There he took up athletics, becoming a runner and finishing tenth in the French junior cross-country championship in 1971.

In December 1974, just before turning professional, he married Martine, whom he had met at a family wedding the year before. Their first son, Mickael, was born in 1975, and a second, Alexandre, in 1981. While a professional, Hinault lived with his family in Quessoy, near Yffiniac. After retiring, they moved to a farm in Brittany that Hinault had bought near Calorguen in 1983. Martine later became mayor of Calorguen. Despite sharing the same birthplace and surname, he is not related to younger cyclist Sébastien Hinault.

**Amateur career** Hinault got into cycling through his cousin René, who rode weekend races. Initially, he used the family's shared bike, riding it devotedly. He got his own bike at age 15 as a reward for passing his school exams, using it to travel to college. In the summer of 1971, he trained with René, who struggled to keep up with the sixteen-year-old Bernard despite being an experienced amateur. Hinault got his racing license from Club Olympique Briochin in late April 1971 and entered his first race on 2 May in Planguenoual. Told only to try to stay with the pack, he won. He won his first five races, totaling twelve wins from twenty races by year's end. That summer, he clashed with his father over his cycling ambitions; Joseph Hinault gave in only after his son ran away from home for three days to stay with cousins, sleeping on straw in a barn.

In 1972, Hinault was allowed to race with the over-18s. At a race in Hillion, he and René broke away and finished together, sharing the victory, which upset the organizers. Hinault was heavily influenced by his trainer at Club Olympique Briochin, Robert Le Roux, who had previously worked with 1965 World Champion Tom Simpson. Hinault won nineteen races in his second amateur season, including the national junior championship against riders a year older, such as future professional Bernard Vallet. At age 18, he was conscripted into the military and did not race in 1973. He could not join the army's training center for young athletes and served in Sissonne with the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment. Returning to competition overweight, he still won his first race of 1974. That final amateur season was highly successful, including a victory in his hometown of Yffiniac, where a four-rider alliance failed to hold him back. He also competed on the track, winning the national pursuit championship. On the road, he entered the Étoile des Espoirs, a race open to amateurs and young professionals.