Bernard Hinault, nicknamed The Badger, was the outspoken favorite to win the 1980 Tour de France. He had already done this for the past 2 years and had already shown during the Giro d'Italia and Liège Bastogne Liège in 1980 that he was in excellent shape.
Hinault superior in the first week
The Tour of 1980 started brilliantly for the then 25-year-old Hinault with a win in the prologue, after which he was immediately allowed to put on the yellow jersey. Hinault also won the 4th stage, a 34km time trial on the Francorchamps circuit.
And it didn't stop, he was also the first to cross the line in the 5th stage: a stage of 258 km from Liege to Lille on a hilly course. It looked as if the 1980 Tour had already fallen into a decisive fold. After all, Hinault was already almost 4 minutes ahead of his main attacker, the Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk.
Zoetemelk and Team Raleigh superior in the 2th week
But the 2nd week the machine Hinault started to sputter. First he lost over a minute and a half at Zoetemelk during a team time trial and then another minute and a half during an individual time trial. His lead over Zoetemelk was reduced to just 21 seconds.
The only bright spot was that after this time trial, Hinault was allowed to take over the yellow jersey from Rudy Pevenage, who had already been wearing the yellow jersey for more than 9 days.
After the 12th ride, arriving in Pau, however, a scene took place in the evening that many cycling enthusiasts can still vividly recall. After the arrival there seemed to be no problem when the journalists asked Hinault how he felt. Everything ok replied the badger.
Dit bericht op Instagram bekijken
It was just a pretense. Hinault suffered a knee tendonitis, believed to have been contracted during his epic victory in Liège Bastogne Liège, ridden in appalling snow and hail conditions. The tendonitis came back up after the 5th stage, ridden in the rain. Hence his lesser results in the time trials in the 2nd week.
Leaving the Tour in the yellow jersey
A few hours after the arrival of the 12th stage, Hinault disappeared like a thief in the night through the back door of the kitchen of the hotel where he stayed with the riders of his team. Outside, Hubert Arbès, a teammate who had to leave the Tour earlier due to a crash, was waiting in his car for Bernard Hinault.
Arbès was asked by the then sports director Cyrille Guimard to come to the hotel where the riders were staying. The presence of Hinault's wife Martine had caused outrage at Arbès.
Hinault wasn't quite sure how to deal with the journalists' questions, so he drew up this plan together with Guimard. It was therefore the latter who informed Tour boss Fèlix Lèvitan of this dramatic event.
Hinault spent the first night sleeping in Arbès' home in Lourdes where Martine, Hinault's wife meanwhile, had arrived by car and had hidden it in the garage.
The day after, at the start of the 13th stage, the grief of the French people and the supporters of Hinault was very great and Joop Zoetemelk, then 2nd in the standings, refused to wear the yellow jersey out of respect.
Zoetemelk won this Tour at the age of 34 by almost 7 minutes ahead of his compatriot Hennie Kuiper. It was Zoetemelk's first and only Tour victory after having finished 2nd 5 times before.
