Interview with Bernard Hinault

[fiamme red]

Fascinating stuff:

http://www.gitaneusa.com/Hinault.asp

...When you fell in the 1985 Tour de France what did you tell Phil Anderson? Is he the one that made you fall?

The next day I wanted to make him crash too. But I said to myself : “What if you kill him ?” because in a fall you never know how it can end up…I just told him to stay away from me.

You think he did that on purpose?

It sure looked like it…

That would have been very dangerous, he got hurt too…

Not sure…

He fell too, didn’t he?

Did he fall?

Would you have liked being a pro rider in today’s peleton?

Every era is magnificent. I would have loved to compete today, 35 years ago, 40 years ago…when you love competition, you just love it...

[johnnymossville]

The rest of the interview is nice too. Thanks for the link.

Those Gitanes remind me of the Tour de France I bought at a flea-market when I when I was a kid. My dad still has it somewhere I think.

[rustychisel]

thanks for that. BH - the last great patron of the peloton.

[BBB]

Yeah interesting interview. I like this bit:

Do you have a favourite bike from the days you were competing?

No, since the specs were the same, I was not better on one or the other…

In fact, you see bikes as tools, there is no particular attachment to these machines?

No, it was a working tool we could improve with new technology.

And a VO2 max of 93...