Greg LeMond spoke to Ouest-France, and WielerFlits picked it up. He says Paul Seixas is the next Hinault. “Seixas is the next Hinault. If he keeps his head on his shoulders, he has the talent to win the Tour,” he said. He adds that Pogacar was good at nineteen and that Seixas, at the same age, is just as good as him.
Me, at the front, I couldn’t tell you. I never saw Hinault from the front, nor anyone else, for that matter. But what stopped me in the article wasn’t the youngster. It was the line of history they put underneath, the way you put the palmarès under the photo. In 1985, Hinault wins his last Tour, and LeMond helps him, at La Vie Claire. In 1986, Hinault was supposed to help him in return, and put him under pressure instead. LeMond won anyway, the first of his three Tours.
That is a domestique’s story. You ride for the leader one year, they promise you the year after, and the year after, you look in the mirror to work out who is riding for whom. On our team, the one sponsored by chassis, we didn’t have that problem: nobody promised us anything, so we dropped back for the bidons without a second thought. A bidon has to be earned. A promised bidon is another matter.
And now the domestique of 1985 names his old leader’s successor himself. I find that lovely, actually. He could have kept the words to himself. He gives them to a young rider, with one condition, head on his shoulders, which is also what they say in the gruppetto when the descent arrives.
“Next Hinault” is not a category in the classification. I note.
In Belgium they name the next Merckx every two years, de koers (the race, as they say in Flanders) knows no other way. In France, they have been waiting for theirs since 1985. Each to their own clock. I put the article next to my coffee and went to see what time the club car leaves on Sunday.
It’s true, we checked: WielerFlits.
