Hinault and LeMond, 1986: betrayal or a team lesson?

July 1986, Alpe d'Huez: two teammates cross the line hand in hand. It looks like affection. It is really the last act of a Tour in which the same team had two leaders and one yellow jersey, and forty years later fans are still split: did Bernard Hinault betray Greg LeMond, or teach him how to win a stage race? On 20 October Tuttobiciweb went back to that story, and we put the facts in order.

The promise

The team was La Vie Claire. Hinault had already won five Tours and had announced that 1986 would be his last. LeMond, his teammate, had promised in 1985 to back him; for 1986 it was Hinault's turn to repay the favour, and he had said so in public: he would ride in service of the American. According to Wikipedia, the promise was repeated at the insistence of the team owner, Bernard Tapie.

The Tour ran 23 stages over 4,094 kilometres, from 4 to 27 July. So far, a story about loyalty. Then they started pedalling.

A Tour that changes face three times

Hinault won the Nantes time trial and, around the middle of the race, was ahead of LeMond on general classification with a healthy margin. In the Pyrenees things turned around: Hinault struggled after the Peyresourde, LeMond won the Luchon-Superbagnères stage and the gap fell to 40 seconds. Then came the Alps. On the Col du Granon LeMond went to the front and took the yellow jersey: in the stage of 20 July Hinault lost more than three minutes between the Izoard and the Granon.

The next day, 21 July, was Alpe d'Huez. LeMond let Hinault have the stage win and the two arrived together, hand in hand. Hinault said afterwards that if LeMond was still in yellow after the last time trial he would not attack again. But he had also said that the race was not over.

It was not, as it turned out. Hinault won the Saint-Étienne time trial, LeMond was strongest at the Puy de Dôme, and in Paris the final gap was 3'10". LeMond became the first American, and the first non-European, to win the Tour. Hinault, second in his eighth and last Tour, retired at the end of the season, on his thirty-second birthday.

Betrayal or strategy?

Our take

If we had to choose, we would say both things are true: the attack was within the rules of Hinault's trade, the promise to help his teammate was within the rules of his word. In a stage race loyalty is measured in seconds, and that time it was 3'10". A line to keep: in 1986 La Vie Claire had two leaders and one yellow jersey, and history chose the younger one.

We like to think that the hand-in-hand finish on Alpe d'Huez was the most honest moment of all: two rivals who, deep down, respected each other.

From Sallanches 1980 to the 2027 Worlds

There is a thread that runs all the way to today. Hinault is the same rider who won the 1980 World Championships by attacking on the Côte de Domancy, the climb that will decide the rainbow jersey again in 2027. We wrote about it in our article on Sallanches 2027. When you see a modern rider go from far out, forty kilometres from the finish, you remember that style: whoever attacks from afar does not ask permission.

A climb to remember it

The best way to feel that Tour is to climb where it went. If you want to try Alpe d'Huez, we have a guide to the 21 hairpins: gearing, pacing, best season. And if you would rather stay close to home, the routes page has climbs drawn by the community, while the 2027 calendar collects the gran fondos to pencil in for next year.

Which side are you on: did Hinault have the right to attack, or was LeMond right to feel betrayed? And have you ever made a promise on a group ride that you did not keep? Tell us in the comments.