Bernard Hinault Calls Out Lance Armstrong

[El Torito]

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[Mrmyke709]

Pretty hypocritical, coming from the guy who ****** Greg Lemond over.

 

[TexonLongIsland]

**** Hinault and the escarcot he rode in on.

Ok that insult didn't work so well. He was a damn fine rider. Too bad he's your typical french douche.

Ahhh that worked better

 

[gobears92]

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[mandingo]

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[triplehorn]

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[Bill in Sinton]

He doesn't really speak for all the French people. In fact one member of the French press thanked Lance publicly for coming back to the Tour and creating interest.

But itis true that Bernard Hinault did do Greg LaMond wrong in both 1985 and 1986. In 1985 Hinault's French team hired LaMond to help Hinault win a fifth tour with the understanding that Greg would be helped in 1986 and be the leader. It was also understood that if Greg had the chance to win the 1985 Tour he could do so with the team's blessing. One time Greg was in a breakawy waiting for Hinault who was actually three minutes behind but was told by the manager that he was only 45 minutes behind. Greg waited for him and waited and lost finally when riders caught him he realized he had been deceived and lost a chance to win the Tour which he lost by 1min42sec. After that stage he was so upset he almost left the tour but was pursuaded with the promise next year they would support him.

The next year Hinault in my opinion double crossed Greg again. He made an attack and got over 5min advantage over Greg. In later years he said he did it to try to draw out Greg's main contenders but most including Greg don't believe it. However Hinault cracked in the mountains and Greg overcame the deficit to win the TDF. Disgusted, Greg left the French team.

In 1987 Greg was the victim in a hunting accident and had to not race for two years. In 1989 he finally returned to the Tour and won two more years.

I feel that had he been given the chance he could have won 6 tours - maybe more. Greg claims that doping started in the early 90s which probably cost him more tour victories so perhaps if circumstances had been different he might have even won 8 tours. We will never know though.

 

[RayDog]

I will always remember watching the recap of the stage where LeMond had a time gap over Hinault and then Hinault crashed and lost more time. Hinault was bloody and in as much agony as I have seen watching cycling. The story came out that LeMond initially refused support, but his team manager told him that he would have to ride the rest of the race on his own if he didn't come back for Hinault.

Lemond probably should have won in 87 and 88 too if he was healthy and would have been the first 6 time winner if he had. LeMond rally was not that good in 1991 and with or without EPO (finished 13 minutes back in 7th place). I doubt he would have won, so claiming 8 wins is more than a little over the top..