Five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault has categorically rejected any hopes that, at least in the short term, the host nation of cycling's biggest bike race will finally hit on a home-born rider to succeed Le Blaireau as the country's most recent Tour champion.
In a long interview with L'Équipe, the semi-offiicial newspaper for the Tour, Hinault discussed his - and France's - most recent victory in 1985, his affinity with current top favourite Tadej Pogačar and why he had little interest in equalizing the record of five Tours de France, which he holds with Miguel Indurain, Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx.
"That was never my priority," he insisted, before adding that he went to the Tour to try to enjoy himself, rather than view it as work, and that he had the impression that Pogačar had the same attitude.
However, Hinault had much sharper words for France's home riders, saying that they had not been up to the task of trying to fight for the Tour since 1985, when he won it despite breaking his nose and going down with bronchitis, and a serious dispute erupting at one point with up-and-coming teammate Greg LeMond over team tactics on one key Pyrenean stage.
"I would happily not have this record," Hinault told L'Équipe about being the last French rider to win the Tour, adding that at the time, he wouldn't have "bet a centime" on the chances of that happening.
"French riders had always won the race at regular intervals up til then. It's a terrible observation to make, but it's one you can't avoid. There are [currently] no grand champions in France who are capable of winning the Tour."
"We don't have that big, 1000cc motorbike that can make a difference, just the 750cc model. I'm sure they do everything they can to get there, but they don't have the results and above all they have no chance of winning the Tour."
In the years that followed 1983 and 1984 Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon's failure to beat LeMond by just eight seconds in 1989 and clinch a third title, Hinault said, France had "lost the habit of seeing ourselves as possible winners, we've passed on the torch to others."
"I'd be more than happy not to have this record, because we're a cycling country, with the most beautiful races in the world and above all, the most important - the Tour. It's an anomaly in the history of our sport."
The whys and wherefores
Hinault pointed to a number of small reasons rather than a single major factor being responsible for the drought. Cycling's mondialisation - the 1980s and 1990s term for an increasingly international feel to the sport - saw the Colombians, the Americans, the Australians and the British all raise their game dramatically, making for a corresponding cut in the number of opportunities for the 'traditional' cycling nations, like France. This international trend led to a loss in points of reference for the French, Hinault said, and a drifting apart from their usual habit of fighting for the win.
Hinault had fulsome praise for local riders like Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and their preference to prioritise other objectives like the World Championships ahead of "going for a top ten place in the Tour, which nobody remembers."
"It's too easy to hide behind an [inferiority] complex," Hinault added to L'Équipe.
"When you do sport at a high level, you want to win. And for years, I've not had that impression when I hear the French announce their goals for the Tour, like a top 10 place overall."
"I can't stand hearing riders saying they had good legs after a finish, when good legs, in my opinion, are the ones you have when you win."
"David Gaudu's fourth place in the 2022 Tour was treated as if he had won - or nearly. It certainly didn't help him push for a higher result, because in France he received all the honours a winner normally gets."
The standard defence in the 2000s was a reference to 'two-speed cycling' - that the playing field regarding banned substances in France was very different to how things were viewed abroad, but Hinault ridiculed the idea.
"It's way too easy to hide behind that excuse," he told L'Équipe. "Things weren't as clear-cut as people liked to say. Everybody was at risk, even in France."
As for the French riders' complaints about his criticisms, Hinault reacted as strongly as ever, saying, "Just the mere fact of complaining is already a confession of weakness. My criticisms should have made them feel more motivated, make them want to show me I was wrong. I haven't invented anything when I simply observe that their results haven't been up to scratch in the Tour."
When it came to up-and-coming talent, Hinault agreed that Paul Seixas, just 18 but already a top ten finisher in the Critérium du Dauphiné, could offer France some hope in the future.
But he said he regarded the ultra-young Decathlon AG2R pro's best project as learning the ropes for now, or as Hinault put it, "Let him win the Tour de l'Avenir this year, and then we'll see about what happens next."
"It's already great that he's done the Dauphiné this year, and I don't see why he can't do the Tour next year. He'll be 19 years old and have everything to learn."
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