“Unfortunately, we don’t have the runner who is able to do the mountains and the time trials”, added Sunday on franceinfo the five-time winner of the Tour de France and world champion in 1980.
“We can’t win the Tour de France right now”declared Sunday April 23 in the Club info on franceinfo Bernard Hinault, five-time winner of the Tour de France and world champion in 1980. The Belgian Remco Evenepoel won his second Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.
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The Deanery classics has been marked by the abandonment on fall of the Slovenian favorite Tadej Pogacar, victim of a double fracture in the left wrist. “It’s a shame that Pogacar had this terrible fall, regrets Bernard Hinault. We didn’t have the show we would have liked to have between two great champions. Everyone must have regrets because we had the two great champions and we would have liked to see this great fight”.
Is Tadej Pogacar the big boss of cycling?
It was him but when you see what Remco Evenepoel did you can think that there are two and then it depends on the races. There are races where it’s Mathieu van der Poel when we do cyclocross, Wout van Aert on certain classics. We have a great generation coming. Remco Evenepoel won the Tour of Spain, there he is going to do the Tour of Italy and he is capable of winning classics. With Tadej Pogacar, these are two superb champions that we currently have
What do you think of Tadej Pogacar?
If he doesn’t win a race, he has no money, and if he has no money, he doesn’t live. These are people who are hungry and that is what makes all the difference. Two years ago he said: “I have fun on a bike”. Well, that says it all. He enjoys himself. He did not take the bike as a job but as a hobby. He is the champion who stands out from the ordinary.
You are the last Frenchman to have won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in 1980. That day, it was snowing. What memories do you keep?
The memory is that my fingers always hurt. Today, we wouldn’t race (if it snowed) because we have the means to know. But for me it is a good memory even though I suffered for a while.
Is the French succession there?
So far, we don’t have it. Julian Alaphilippe could have won but he was not so lucky. I think he’s one of the last that could have done it. We must hope that we have in our young people with the qualities, the temperament, to take this beautiful place.
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You are also the last Frenchman to have won the Tour de France in 1985. Do you think another Frenchman will win it?
Currently, no. When we see the contenders for the final victory, we have superb champions, unfortunately we don’t have the rider who is capable of doing the mountains and the time trials. We cannot win the Tour de France at the moment.
Are you worried about Julian Alaphilippe?
It’s true that he didn’t get the results we hoped for, but the season isn’t over and there’s still plenty of good things to do. It is not he who will win the Tour, but if he is at the start, he must try to win stages, as much as possible, and not play the general classification.
