Thirty-five years after Bernard Hinault’s Tour de France win, the world champion carries slim home hopes
On Monday, the Tour de France’s mini-tour of famous cycling locations in the bike racing heartland of Brittany takes it through Plumelec and up the legendary Cadoudal hill. The ascent will be brief and probably inconsequential, but after a weekend full of reminders of French cycling’s glorious past it will serve as yet another reminder of a far longer and more existentially painful battle: the 35-year hiatus since the home nation won its Tour.
In 1985, Plumelec was where Bernard Hinault won the prologue in front of 100,000 baying fans, the first stepping stone towards the “Badger’s” his fifth Tour win, the last victory for a Frenchman.
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