Tour de France : Hinault Wins Race for Fifth Time

France’s Bernard Hinault won the 72nd Tour de France on Sunday, becoming only the third rider to win the prestigious cycling race five times.

Hinault also won in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982.

Countryman Jacques Anquetil won five races in the 50s and 60s, and Belgium’s Eddy Merckx accomplished the feat in the 1970s. No rider has won the event six times.

Belgium’s Rudy Matthijs, winner of the first and second legs of the Tour, won the 22nd and final leg, which ended on the Avenue des Champs Elysees in the heart of Paris. Ireland’s Sean Kelly finished second and France’s Francis Castaing was third.

Hinault, riding for La Vie Claire, edged American teammate Greg LeMond by 1 minute 42 seconds in the over-2,500-mile race. His overall time was 113 hours 24 minutes 23 seconds.

Irishmen Stephen Roche placed third, and countryman Kelly was fourth in the overall standings.

Matthijs, riding for Splendor, finished the 121.7-mile leg from Orleans to Paris in 5 hours 13 minutes and 56 seconds. Ireland’s Kelly finished second, while France’s Francis Castaing placed third.

Hinault wound up 76th among the 144 riders who crossed the finish line in a pack. “Personally, I always tried to ride at the head of the pack . . . (but) it wasn’t necessary to take risks this close to the finish,” he said.

The Tour began with a time trial prologue on June 28 in the town of Plumelec in Brittany, France’s northwest coast. It ended 2,552.2 miles later after strenuous rides up steep mountains, through cooling forests and across searing hot plains.

Italy’s Maria Canins won the 1985 Women’s Tour de France, despite a victory by France’s Dominique Damiani in the final stage in Paris.

With a nearly nine-minute lead over France’s Jeannie Longo in the overall standings, Canins was content to ride inside the pack Sunday and was the 52nd rider to cross the finish line on the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris.

The women’s race is run in 18 stages across 745.6 miles of France.

Damiani covered Sunday’s 41.5-mile course from Chaville in 1 hour 34 minutes 46 seconds. Catherine Swinnerton of Britain was second in the sprint to the wire.

Canins finished with 17.141 overall points. Longo was second with 15.810 points, followed by France’s Cecile Odin with 15.O52. Italy’s Imelda Chiappa was fourth at 14.906 points.

American Janelle Parks finished in eighth position with 14.738 points, while Wang Li of China was a surprise finisher in eighth place overall with 14.737 points.