(Calais) Bernard Hinault, the last French winner of the Tour de France (1985), dubbed Tadej Pogacar, the Slovenian defending champion, in the race of which he is the five-time winner at the same time as a legend of his sport.
Posted at 12:45 p.m.
Before coming to present the solidarity operation (“one child, one bike”) set up by Century 21 to distribute bikes to children from low-income families, the Breton champion, now 67, spoke to AFP on the start of the 2022 Tour.
“For the moment, everyone is watching each other, but the champions fought in the first time trial,” noted Hinault, who also mentioned the absence of gaps in the following two stages in Denmark: “ When there is no wind, there is nothing you can do! »
The “Badger”, his nickname in the cycling world, preferred to insist on Pogacar, presented by the legendary Eddy Merckx, alias the “Cannibal”, as his heir.
“He is the champion who makes us dream a little, he is present in the classics, he is on the Tour. He is doing well in time trials and in the mountains, he runs a lot up front, he has shown that he is comfortable on the cobbles. He’s the crack of his generation, ”said Hinault.
“He is 23 years old and he already has two Tours de France. Compared to Eddy and me, he is two years ahead”, notes the legend of French cycling, without however projecting himself on the continuation or on the balance sheet: “We will know it at the end of his career. We said for (Jan) Ullrich and for (Egan) Bernal that they were going to overtake us, and then the incidents happen… ”
“When you like fighting, it’s great! »
PHOTO DANIEL COLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tadej Pogacar
How to beat Pogacar? For the Breton, only one tactic is possible for the Jumbo team and its two assets, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard and the Slovenian Primoz Roglic: “Only the Jumbo can destabilize it if they attack each in turn. If they race for Roglic, they will be beaten. If they attack in turn, we will see who will destabilize Pogacar and there Pogacar will have only one solution left, to go on the attack himself to eliminate one or the other. »
Beyond the fight for the yellow jersey, Hinault is above all satisfied with the return to attack cycling: “When you have champions attacking 60 kilometers from the finish, it’s nice. Before, we had the last five kilometers of racing… ”
In this set, the French champion includes Pogacar and the punchers promised to play the leading roles in the next stages, the Belgian Wout van Aert and the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, as well as the conspicuous absentee, Julian Alaphilippe.
“When you like fighting, it’s great! “, Welcomes the five-time winner of the Tour (between 1978 and 1985) who recalls the immutable data of cycling beyond technological advances: “It is normal to try to improve performance, but these are not the numbers that move the runners forward. When you have the saddle in your c… The earphones can be a great work tool, but if it’s to yell “go faster, go faster”…”
In front of his TV set, Hinault prefers to share his admiration for the yellow jersey, van Aert, and his rivals: “It’s the new generation with van der Poel and Pidcock. They are as good on cyclo-cross as they are in classics and grand tours. »
How far can van Aert go? “He can keep the yellow jersey until the Planche des Belles Filles. He is not much ahead of Pogacar and the real climbers, ”adds the Breton. He trusts the Belgian for the future: “He’s a pro who knows what he has to do, give to his teammates and then say ‘it’s my turn now’. »