The former French champion, 5 big loops at the charts and last tricolor winner on the world’s largest cycling race, spoke about the chances of French victories as the 2025 edition (July 5, Lille).
Each year, the observation comes back to him, like a boomerang. But in 2025, the echo was even stronger. 40 years – a round account – that a French cyclist has no longer won the world’s largest cycling race in the world: the Tour de France.
Thus, as approaching the big departure of a new edition of the Grande Boucle, this Saturday, July 5 of Lille, the spotlights are more than ever turned on the latest French winner: Bernard Hinault, in 1985. His fifth and last success on the event, after 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982.
A “record” of which he “would have gone well” he assures this Tuesday in an interview on a daily basis The team. “We are a country of bicycle, with the most beautiful races in the world, and above all the most important, the turn. It is an anomaly in the history of our sport” he launches.
And the “badger” to draw up a cold observation: “There are no more big champions in France capable of winning the tour. We no longer have the big motorcycle, that of 1,000 cm3 which can make the difference, we only have 750 cc. They probably do what it takes to get there, but they do not have the results and above all no chance of winning the Tour.”
For Breton, now 70 years old, the French have “lost their bearings” after the emergence of new nations: Colombia, United States first, Australia and England. “We had to share the cake even more, and we could not defend our share.”
“When you do high level sports, you want to win,” he continues. “And for years, I do not have this impression when I hear the French to announce their objective at the start of the Tour: a place in the top 10 in the final classification. I cannot stand to hear a runner saying after the finish line he had good legs.”
Bernard Hinault also encourages his successors to aim for other tests than the Tour de France to accumulate victories, inspired by Julian Alaphilippe victorious in 2020 and 2021 of two consecutive titles of world champions.
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And when it is emphasized that some French runners are injured by his criticisms, Bernard Hinault answers: “Nothing that complaining is already an admission of weakness. They should have boosted them, motivate them to show me that I was wrong. I do not invent anything when I only see that their results are not up to the Tour.”
