1979 Hinault Decisive Time Trial

Lore & Background

By 1979, Bernard Hinault had already announced himself as the defining force of the decade. His 1978 victory had been a statement; the 1979 campaign was a coronation. Riding for Renault-Gitane, Hinault combined the raw, almost savage attacking instinct that earned him the 'Badger' nickname with a time-trial ability that few of his contemporaries could match. Where other GC contenders relied on mountain days to build or lose time, Hinault could win or lose the Tour on a flat, lonely road with nothing but the sky and his own rhythm.

In Their Own Story

The morning fog had not yet lifted off the road when Hinault rolled out of the start corral. There was no team around him, no domestics to shield him from the wind — just the long, empty stretch of tarmac stretching toward a horizon that seemed to recede with every pedal stroke. He settled into his position, elbows locked, and the world narrowed to the hum of the chain and the rhythm of his breathing. Somewhere behind him, the others were still warming their legs, still calculating. But Hinault was not calculating. He was simply riding, the way a badger digs — without looking up, without stopping, until the ground gives way or the job is done. By the time the first spectator at the roadside raised a hand, he was already a dark blur in the distance, and the clock on the finish gantry was the only thing that mattered.

Reader's Guide

The stage begins in the late afternoon, the sun low and golden, casting long shadows across a road that has been swept and cordoned off for the day. The peloton has spent the previous week in a grinding war of attrition — cross-country stages, hilly days, a mountain stage or two that thinned the GC pack to a handful of serious contenders. The air is cool, the road dry, and the silence of a time trial start is a different kind of tension than the roar of a bunch sprint.

Hinault rolls out first among the GC-relevant riders, and from the first kilometre the difference is visible. His cadence is metronomic, his position taut and aerodynamic. The flat sections that would punish a lesser rider do not register on his face. There is no visible effort, only a relentless, almost mechanical turnover of the cranks.

By the halfway mark, the gap to the riders behind is no longer a matter of seconds but of a different category of performance. The roadside crowd, sparse at first, thickens near the finish as word travels of what is happening on the road. The final kilometres are a blur of chainring noise and the distant clatter of the peloton stages still to come.

He crosses the line, and the clock stops. The number on the board is not just a time — it is a verdict. The yellow jersey is his, and for the rest of the Tour, the question is no longer whether he will win, but only by how much. Fans still replay that stage in their minds decades later, not because of the margin, but because of the silence of it — one man, one road, one answer to a question the rest of the field could not pose.

Did You Know?

• Bernard Hinault won a total of five Tour de France overall titles (1978, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985), a record that stood for decades.
• His nickname 'Le Blaireau' (The Badger) was earned for his aggressive, relentless attacking style that made him nearly impossible to catch once he launched a move.
• The 1979 victory was Hinault's second consecutive Tour de France win, a feat that underscored his all-round superiority across terrain types.
• Hinault was one of the very few riders in Tour history to win the overall classification in consecutive years while also being a dominant force in the time trials.