San Francisco Frontiers - No room for sentiment as Hinault returns to site of world title glory

The five-time Tour de France champion, now 70, conquered the course, 20 laps of 13 kilometres, beginning and ending in Sallanches and including the daunting 2.5km climb of Domancy, to finish over a minute ahead of the Italian Gianbattista Baronchelli.

"The fact that it is virtually the same route (as in 1980) means we will be able to compare the older generation with the present one," he told AFP.

The legs may not be what they were at their peak for the rider nicknamed 'The Badger' but, playing his role as ambassador for the 2027 championships to the full, he rode up the Domancy on Tuesday on an electric bike.

It is the first time he has tackled the Domancy, which now also bears his name as the Route Bernard Hinault, since 1980 and he admitted it was not something he would choose to do.

"Why would you want me to do it again? There's no point," said Hinault with the hint of a smile. "I'm not doing it for my own pleasure."

Hinault might at least take some pleasure in the way he is remembered in Sallanches: not just the road name but a five-metre high stele -- featuring him on a bike -- which dominates a roundabout at the entrance to the town, situated at the foot of Mont Blanc in the Haute Savoie region.

Since Hinault's victory in 1980, only two other Frenchman have won the world championships, Laurent Brochard in 1997 and Julian Alaphilippe who had back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021.

But he sees no reason why another Frenchman should not repeat his Sallanches success, given the 'one-off' nature of the world championships.

"You can have a group that gets away from the peloton," said Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France in 1985.

"There could be a guy in that bunch, who knows how to ride, who says to himself 'I am going to do the minimum, I am not going to put it all out there for the moment'. That could pay dividends at the end.

"But when one sees today, the Pogacars, the Vingegaards, on routes like that, I think it is not too bad for them either.

"One thing is for sure, a journeyman will not win it."

- 'Nip and tuck' -

Hinault, who also won the Giro three times and the Vuelta twice, said the most difficult thing about the route is the repetitiveness.

"When you race the same route 20 times, that leaves its mark," he said.

"If you have an 80km course lying straight ahead of you, you can relax a bit.

"However, in this instance, if you find yourself badly-placed on the descent, you have to make extra efforts.

"Therefore you must be extra-focused and always be in the first 30 riders, in order to keep an eye on everything that is going on."

Hinault said it is an unforgiving terrain.

"In 1980, after getting acquainted with the route, and looking at the entry list, one was able to say that it did not suit many of them," said Hinault.

"At the end of two or three laps, a lot of the riders said 'what am I doing here?'. If you're already 10 minutes off the pace after two laps, you might as well go back to the hotel."

As for how he finally shook off Baronchelli, who was cheered on, Hinault recalls, by around "40,000 Italians who had crossed the border", the memories are vivid.

"The penultimate lap I had already tried to give him the flick," said Hinault.

"I had attacked 50 metres from the summit but he came back. In the final climb, when he changed gear, it sounded like 'crack, crack, crack!'

"It was nip and tuck between us but I gritted my teeth. And bingo, I attacked!

"He was at the end of his tether, he sat back down on the bike and it was finished for him."

Z.Sanchez--SFF