Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s glorious victory in the Tour de France Femmes completed a fabulous and very rare double; she won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour in the same year.
Rare also because the last man to do it was Bernard Hinault way back in 1981. And where Ferrand-Prevot was happy to win, Bernard Hinault hated Paris-Roubaix, even when he won it.
He thought cobblestones had no place in modern racing, and his view was magnified when he nearly lost the 1979 Tour de France due to delays though his own falls, and those of others, on a wet slippery stage over the stones. He even partly blamed the cobblestones for the tendonitis that forced him out of the 1980 Tour when leading and looking unbeatable.
His feelings weren’t improved when the press kept banging on about how every great champion should win Paris-Roubaix, and Hinault hadn’t. It got so bad that one day Hinault rounded on an unfortunate hack, telling him; “Look, I don’t come into your office and tell you to write this word here or put that comma there, so don’t tell me how I should carry out my career.”
In the end Hinault decided to teach the media and the Hell of the North a lesson. He was the boss. He had the rainbow jersey in the spring of 1981, what better time to do it than then?
And what better riders were there to beat? Roger De Vlaeminck was there, Mr Paris-Roubaix with a record four victories to his name. So was Francesco Moser, with three victories in a row; 1978, 1979 and 1980, and hungry to make it four.
The day had classic Roubaix conditions; it was wet, muddy and cold. The cobblestones were a slippery nightmare. It was everything Hinault hated. He fell, he got up and chased, only to fall and chase again. At one point the cobbles were so clogged by a crash in front of him that Hinault dismounted, picked up his bike and ran through a cabbage field to get back on the road in front of them. But he won, and afterwards he told the press; “Winning it hasn’t changed my mind, this is still a b*llshit race.
