THE DAYS WHEN RENAULT WON ON TWO WHEELS
No9: Renault. For eight years the French Renault team racked up wins thanks to star riders such as Hinault, Fignon and Lemond
With a little over 100km to go in the 1980 edition of LiègeBastogne-liège, Renault directeur sportif Cyrille Guimard drove alongside Bernard Hinault, wound down the car window, and told his team leader to take off his rain jacket. ‘The race is starting now,’ he said.
Hinault must have thought Guimard was crazy. It may have been mid-april but the race had been blighted by freezing conditions. Snow had been falling since the start of the race and the roads were drenched with slush. More than 100 riders had abandoned in the blizzard without even reaching the turnaround at Bastogne. In fact, French pro Gilbert DuclosLassalle told L’equipe newspaper that some had collected their start numbers only to return to their hotels without ever turning a pedal, so bad were the conditions. Now Guimard was telling Hinault to discard the only protection against the elements he had.
‘My cape was made of waxed fabric and I was very warm inside it,’ Hinault later reflected. ‘But I took it off as instructed… I decided the only thing to do was ride as hard as I could to keep myself warm.’ Wearing only the yellow and black jersey of his Renault team, a jersey that has been likened to the abdomen of a bee, Hinault set off on what would become one of the sport’s most notable rides. Ahead of him was Rudy Pevenage, who was being chased by a small group of other riders. Hinault accelerated up the Stockeu, caught those chasing Pevenage, and towed them to the Belgian. On the next climb he attacked again. No one went with him. There was still 80km to go and Hinault was alone in some of the toughest conditions ever faced in a bike race. So he did what he always did – he put his head down and got on with it. The Frenchman survived the perilously icy roads to win by more than nine minutes, reportedly saluting his teammates who were watching from a nearby hotel as he approached the finish. Only 21 riders finished the race.
Hinault returned to Renault’s hotel, where a hot bath was awaiting him. He emptied it and filled it with tepid water before getting in. So numbed had he been by the conditions that it took him weeks to recover and he has said his hands remain susceptible to the cold today.
It was Hinault’s third Monument win and the second he had claimed in Renault’s famous jersey. Four months later he would win the World Championships on a brutal course in the French Alps, riding alone under heavy skies to a famous victory – the first French winner in 18 years. In 1981 he won Paris-roubaix and then famously declared the race was ‘bullshit’ after falling seven times and colliding with a dog. At one point, while wearing his rainbow jersey, he was forced to shoulder his bike and run through a field to prevent getting snarled up in a post-crash delay.
Enter Fignon
Founded in 1898 by brothers Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault to manufacture cars, Renault was nationalised after World War
So numbed had Hinault been by the conditions that it took him weeks to recover and he has said his hands remain susceptible to the cold today
Two, becoming Régie Nationale des Usines Renault, though such was its standing in France that it was often known as just La Régie – ‘the company’. In 1974 Renault bought 30% of Gitane cycles and two years later took control of the firm. Gitane had co-sponsored a cycling team alongside Campagnolo since 1975, and when that deal finished in 1977 Renault took on title sponsorship. It was the start of an incredible eight-year adventure.
From 1978 until the team’s demise, Renault claimed no fewer than 10 Grand Tour titles. Hinault won eight of those, becoming the first rider in history to win each of the Tour, Giro and Vuelta more than once, but it was his successor as leader of the Renault team who claimed the squad’s final two Tour victories.
In May 1981, a talented 20-year-old French cyclist called Laurent Fignon received a phone call from Guimard. Renault’s boss told Fignon he wanted him for the 1982 season. In his autobiography, We Were Young And Carefree, Fignon writes that this call was the turning point in his story. He had landed in ‘club class’. ‘I was going to Guimard’s,’ he writes. ‘I had ended up with Hinault. It was the cycling equivalent of taking a degree at Oxford or Cambridge.’
Such was Fignon’s talent and personality that Guimard thought trouble between his new
Fignon responded to the authoritative Hinault, who was berating the team for going too hard, by telling him, ‘All you have to do is train, mate. You’ll find it a lot easier’
signing and Hinault was inevitable. Fignon claims in his book there were never any problems, despite recounting how at dinner, early in the 1983 season, he responded to the authoritative Hinault, who was out of shape and berating the team for going too hard during a team time-trial, by telling him, ‘All you have to do is train, mate. You’ll find it a lot easier.’
A knee injury plagued Hinault that season, which meant Renault went to the Tour without its (then) four-time Tour winner and leader. Fignon was one of the team’s protected riders and inherited the yellow jersey after Pascal Simon, who had captured the hearts of France by riding for six days with a broken shoulder, finally abandoned. Fignon won the penultimate stage and entered Paris the winner by more than four minutes. Renault had its fifth Tour win in six years. Plus ça change… as they say.
Fignon won the Tour again in 1984, this time destroying Hinault, who had left the team to join La Vie Claire. On the stage to Alpe d’huez, Fignon repelled repeated attacks from Hinault before powering away on the final climb. Renault’s former leader finished second in Paris, 10 minutes down, while third was Fignon’s young American teammate Greg Lemond.
The up-and-coming Lemond had joined Renault in 1981. While his three Tour wins came after he left the team, he claimed the Dauphiné Libéré while at Renault and also won the World Championships, matching Hinault’s 1980 title for the team.
Renault bowed out of cycling at the end of 1985. The company was facing financial difficulties (it would be privatised in the 1990s) so pulled all its sports sponsorship. Guimard and Fignon went on to form their own team, securing sponsorship from Système U.