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Bernard Hinault 2011 TDF launchBernard Hinault: “Froome is not part of the legend of the sport"
Bernard Hinault's name has been mentioned a few times in recent days after Chris Froome's Giro d'Italia win saw him join the Frenchman and Eddy Merckx as the only cyclists to have held all three Grand Tour titles at the same time. And it turns out, the Badger is not very happy about it at all.
“Froome does not belong on that list,” said Hinault, according to a report in Belgian newspaper Het Laaste Nieuws cited by The Guardian.
“He should never have been allowed to start in the Giro,” he continued, a reference to Froome's ongoing salbutamol case.
“Why do we have to wait so long for a verdict? With what right does Froome get so much time to find an explanation? Is it because Sky has so much money?”
The Team Sky rider returned an adverse analytical finding for twice the permitted level of the anti-asthma drug salbutamol at last year's Vuelta, which he won, making him the first man since Hinault in 1978 to win that race and the Tour de France in the same year.
Because salbutamol is a specified substance, rather than one that is completely banned, UCI rules permit Froome, who is confident of clearlng his name, while the rider seeks to provide an explanation about why the levels were so high.
The ongoing case has clearly left a bitter taste in Hinault's mouth, however.
“This is all very sad,” he said.
“Froome is not part of the legend of the sport, because what image does he give cycling?"
UCI president David Lappartient has said that there is now less than a 50 per cent chance of the case being resolved before the Tour de France starts in six weeks' time.
“He may also start the Tour later," Hinault added.
"It’s a real scandal. This has to stop.”
There could be worse to come for the 63-year-old in July.
Should Froome successfully defend his title, he would equal the record held jointly by Hinault, Merckx, Miguel Indurain and Jaques Anquetil.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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100 comments
Hinault is entitled to his opinion, which seems a lot more restrained than the vitriol poured on him in these comments, some distinctly xenophobic, others fatuous muckraking.
I don't agree with his headline assertion.
Pot / kettle. This from a man who refused to do a dope control and was suspended for 1 month? How is he any better than any of the prominent dopers? Never tested positive? Oh, hang on, that sounds familiar...
"(surely getting him into a lab for a couple of days straight after the giro to see what response his body has to the allowed dose would be a fairly straightforward way to test it)"
Well... If they could have done that then I think they would. They are going to have to try and recreate a whole lot of fatigue, temperatures, climbs, attacks, TT efforts, dehydration, fuelling et al not only to return the same result but also demonstrate they've not just found a lab test that will fudge it.
Medication is a bloody tricky thing. As I diabetice my sugars should be between 5 and 9 - obviously riding can drop these dramatically and in dramaticly different ways based on temperature, efforts etc. Ahhh, why not start a little high to prevent a dangerous sugar drop? Well if I start at 12 instead and do a hard effort, my body goes into some weird kind of shock, breaks the glucose in my body down (from energy stores) and sends my sugars even higher. Many times, the body isn't an exact science...
Agreed. If he had been tested once and failed once, then the next steps would be easy.
But presumably he's been tested many, many times and failed once. That could be a freak result, and difficult to replicate the conditions for.
And his competitors, seemed to be having a right good chat with Mr Dumoulin last week too!
BehindTheBikesheds, why dont you cut the diplomacy and tell us what you really think about Hinault
Northern cloth, I can't do it any other way, home, work, play, that's what a lot of people like about me, some others don't. I think It's not just difficult but has a negative effect on your psyche for you to hide your true feelings or to say stuff you don't mean (all the time/often) knowing it's a lie or a half truth that probably isn't really helpful for the most-part.
Not saying I can't be tactful but sometimes tact isn't always the brilliant people skill that some think it is, often simply delays the inevitable and in the meanwhile SNAFU. Ttoo often it legitmises negative traits/responses and can lead people into thinking they can be cuddled like a child who puts on the waterworks after they've done something wrong, whatever.
So yeah, Hinault is a dick.
I'm not a Froome fan, when he wins he rarely mentions or thanks his team members and it seemed to me he tried to deny Wiggins his win, however I think it is ridiculous that the alleged doping incident is ongoing. If Froome is clean he needs to be congratulated so he can take his place in the records without any stain on his career.
What are the authorities playing at?
Pity he doesn't move to the UK and pay his taxes here.
Froome is always thanking his team. See how he gets on his radio at the end of a race, he's usually thanking his team mates.
Why should he move to the UK when he spends most of his time abroad anyway? Look at all the big name British pros and you'll find they all have lived abroad for a large part of their careers. Wiggins lived in Girona, I believe Simon and Adam Yates live in Andorra, Cavendish spends a lot of time in Tuscany. They're not on footballer salaries and I don't begrudge them trying to make the most of their earnings by living in tax havens. They'll be lucky to get a couple of decades as a pro cyclist and should earn as much as they can, while they can.
Uh ? I'm not a massive Sky fan myself but he seems to be generally very appreciative of his team mates when i've heard him interviewed..
Well he was tested every day of this tour so he's probably clean.
You must have selective hearing or watching in an alternative universe, as Froome is one of the best for thanking his team mates during live interviews, Twitter and FB.
Always humble and grateful for their work
Perhaps you listen to different interviews, I saw the interview on the Giro on Quest, and it seemed to me it was all me, me, me, so similar to the others I've heard.
But I say again it is wrong that he is racing unders suspicion they need to sort that out, his Giro winning ride was spectacular, so all credit to him for that.
Perhaps we should have a rule that you can only compete for the UK if you pay your taxes in the UK? That would help the NHS.
What would help the NHS more than anything you or I could ever dream up is to have an electorate that doesn't vote for the Tories and their destructive policies.
But many people are selfish and seduced by promises of lower taxation, cutting "red tape" (i.e. employment & pension rights), tighter immigration controls, forcing disabled & long term sick people into work and all the other nasty, divisive policies that have been put in place since Cameron and his filthy rich chums moved into Downing Street.
Froome is employed by Team Sky, not the UK government. However, he is British, as were his parents. In one sense it could be argued that he's more British than Bradley Wiggins, whose father was Australian.
British pro cyclists living abroad have included Mark Cavendish (who is Manx so technically not from the UK) and Lizzie Deignan. Would you want them to ride for, say, Monaco at the Worlds and the Olympics? Adam and Simon Yates live in Andorra now for at least part of the year. Are they British or Andorran?
Meanwhile should non-British riders living in the UK like Marcin Bialoblocki and Ryan Mullen (raised here but races for Ireland) ride for GB instead of their own nationalities because they presumably pay taxes here? Is Stephen Roche not Irish because he has lived most of his adult life in France?
I don't think you have really thought it through.
You clearly don't live in Wales. We've had the glorious Labour party running our NHS for 20 years now.
For some reason it underperforms relative to the English NHS (run by evil Tories) on most objective measures.
Don't let that fact dissuade you from your ideological rant though.
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/nhs-wales-badly-run-by-labour-or...
Oh dear!
I don't think that link is quite as convincing as you think.
The Welsh NHS needs more money.
The Welsh Assembly Government could assign more money to the NHS, as the link acknowledges, they choose not to.
So the underfunding of the Welsh NHS is a political decision made by Welsh Labour. They choose to prioritise spending elsewhere.
What a surprise! Rich_cb choosing to ignore what suits....
I'm content that your one line soundbite follows form and has no substance.... Back to the real world now....
This is from your link:
"The devolved administrations receive a block grant to spend on devolved policy areas (including healthcare)."
Welsh healthcare spending is decided in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government.
They could increase that spending without recieving a single extra penny from Westminster. They choose not too.
If any of that is untrue please feel free to correct me.
As usual you've waded into a debate you know little or nothing about.
Rich_cb is selective quoting shocker, this quote then goes on to point out the lack of parity which is the basis of the article.
I apologise as you are the expert on everything and I look forward to you getting the personal jibes in too rather than reading the whole fucking article. Oops, too late on that one...
I'm going to sit back and watch you try and demonstrate something or other in another pointless argument, my little internet warrior hero.
The level of spending on healthcare is decided by the Welsh Assembly Government.
If Wales is spending too little, and I happen to agree that we are, then the fault lies primarily with the Welsh Assembly Government.
The block grant is large enough to allow a significant increase in health spending. The Welsh Assembly Government chooses not to do this.
As I said, if any of that is wrong feel free to correct me.
Otherwise it's just another debate which you have lost.
Alternatively, you have again hijacked a post about cycling and think your opinion is more valid than anyone elses regardless of evidence.
Please kindly join the cheese eating surrender monkey in a pointless bunker of hate...
What evidence contradicts my opinion?
Don's link actually backs up my point.
I didn't start the discussion about the NHS I just added to it.
Much like you are now doing.
I'll not get into it with you as you have never commented on this site on anything to do with cycling.
This is a thread about Hinault's beliefs on Froome, you have not said a single thing on this and took your usual approach of selective arguing.
Very boring, I reckon you'd prefer the Daily Mail!
T'ra
Other than my earlier comment about Froome I haven't mentioned him...
I replied to an unrelated post with my opinion, you appear to have done the same but are now taking the moral high ground.
If I'm wrong show it, otherwise what on earth was the point in commenting?
True.
@alansmurphy - I replied to OldMixte, who was the first to mention the NHS. Rich_cb had a different perspective on that. So flame me, I won't mind.
Usually if you want to bring a discussion back to the subject of the title you will get a better response by being polite, otherwise you'll just prolong the slanging match. And if you can't tolerate discussions going OT then you really shouldn't play on the internet for any length of time.
What often gets lost in all this chit-chat about Froome is his record in GTs. Yes, I know you can argue about the Salbutamol case or make insinuations about Sky's medical / nutrition practices and TUEs and snide comments about marginal gains, but in the end what he has done is pretty bloody amazing. I don't mean that in the sense of it being suspicious. Taking it at face value, without real evidence for illegal performance enhancement, I really think it is special. I'm looking at it not as a fan of Froome or Sky but as a someone who follows the sport and is trying very hard to separate the race performances from the noise.
Contador and Valverde have been lauded as two stellar riders of their generation yet both returned to the pro ranks after bans, unrepentant and tight-lipped. While there are still questions about how and for how long they cheated, even the most begrudging cycling fan can admire how they race.
Froome, who has not had a Clenbuterol positive and no blood bags in a dodgy doctor's fridge with his name on them, isn't afforded this respect. He gets spat it, has piss thrown at him (that was back in 2015) and more. I also don't like the endless game of creating unflattering monikers to describe his somewhat aesthetically poor yet very effective way of pedalling a bike, though I realise it is "just a bit of fun". But each of these shows deep disrespect for the person as well as his achievements. I think that is a shame.
To those who think this kind of abuse is fair game: how would they feel if the shoe was on the other foot?
Let's not forget that not all those that think the Froome scandal is not healthy for the sport agree with piss throwing either.
While Froome doesn't have a Clen positive or blood bag, he does have an abnormal finding. Something you may choose to associate with cheating, or not. Either way, there's something not straight.
As the case is not resolved I'm trying to keep an open mind.
I also think that some extra puffs of Salbutamol will not transform a donkey into a racehorse, as EPO was described (though for plenty of riders it was far from the only illegal aid being used).
And while I agree that scandals are not good for the sport cycling has lurched from one crisis to another for decades. Cheating and skullduggery were rife in the earliest years of the Tour. Simpson, Merckx and many more raced with the aid of amphetamines, painkillers and other concoctions. To my knowledge very little detail has been released about the 1980s (excepting Paul Kimmage spitting in the soup), and the 1990s-2000s... well, we know more than enough about that period!
Has there ever been a 'clean' era? It appears not. While it's not a great consolation, at least the current headlines involve the likes of asthma medication.
Do you mean the dockers who blocked the road during Paris-Nice? http://inrng.com/2012/03/the-story-of-the-hinault-photo/
And there was the 1985 Tour, when he smashed his nose in a sprint yet went on to win the race. And not forgetting the ejection of podium interlopers in his later years. He might only be 5'8" but he was called The Badger with good reason.
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