Hinault sees non-white Tour de France winner in near future

For the past eight years, Bernard Hinault has acted as ambassador for the Tropicale Amissa Bongo event in Gabon and admits that over that period he has witnessed a rapid rise in the level of competition at what is Africa's biggest stage race. In the wake of a second victory in a row by an African rider, with Tunisia's Rafaa Chtioui succeeding Eritrea's Natnael Berhane, Hinault believes African riders are getting ever closer to capturing the biggest titles on the calendar, including the Tour de France.

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Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014). 

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