Armstrong, Tour Enter Hinault’s Turf

The Tour de France is certainly about the riders and the mountain stages, the publicity caravans and the bigwigs in the hospitality tents at each day’s start point.

But it’s even more about the small towns and history.

One of these towns is Calorguen, a place of 500 people, a smattering of livestock, no stoplights and the home of Bernard Hinault, one of the five-time Tour winners and a French hero.

He is the last Frenchman to win this event that is so steeped in history and culture. Hinault is the living history of the good old days.

Nicknamed “the Badger” for his tenacious nastiness and ability to grab hold of this grueling spectacle, shake it by its neck until he owned it and still finish smiling at the end, Hinault is a legend here still. “A wonderful man,” one woman said. “But there are no more like him, at least not here.”

Even in the rain Friday, the little town was preparing for Stage 7 of the 2004 Tour to whiz by on Saturday. Streets were being swept, chairs were being dusted off and put out by the side of the road, picnic lunches were being planned.

If there would be a place where Lance Armstrong might not be welcomed, this would have been it. He is threatening to break a record held by Hinault and four others. Armstrong wants to win a sixth straight Tour, which would consign to second place Hinault, a man from a family that is omnipresent. Hinault Meats, Hinault Trucking, the name is everywhere, and so is the love of cycling.

Yet there was anticipation among the locals for the chance to give a shout to Lance, to wish him good luck and Godspeed. “If one can witness greatness, why wouldn’t one cheer?” said Henri Laval, who was staking out his roadside spot.

And sure enough, the peloton arrived here with a whoosh Saturday afternoon and Armstrong was greeted with shouts of approval. “Allez, Lance.” Go, Lance, a group of men yelled at the Texan. The men were draped in France’s colors but one of them also wore a hat that read “Texas” on the front.

Hinault, 49, won his fifth and final Tour de France in 1985. He had said he was finished with trying to win the grueling race and that he would help a young American teammate, Greg LeMond, take his rightful place at the head of the pack. A year earlier LeMond had sacrificed himself to make sure Hinault, his hero, took that final step into history.

It is a well-known story now that Hinault reneged on that promise and instead raced LeMond to near exhaustion in a stage up L’Alpe d’Huez. LeMond withstood the challenge and became the first American winner of the Tour. Afterward Hinault said he was acting as a teacher, helping LeMond win honorably by fighting until the end.

So maybe it would be expected that Hinault would prefer this new American, this brash man who has survived cancer and embraced France and its race without surrendering his Texas spirit or pride, had gracefully retired as the sixth-ever five-time champion.

Instead, to an American reporter, Hinault was full of praise for Armstrong.

“I like his fighting spirit,” Hinault said. “I like his character. To win the Tour you must have character and a strong mental disposition. Lance will not give you a thing and that was how I was. Never give a thing.”

To the European media before the start of this race, Hinault wasn’t quite as effusive. He considered Armstrong no better than a 50-50 bet to break the record.

And to the suggestion that if Armstrong does win the 2004 Tour he might be considered the greatest cyclist ever, Hinault was quoted in several European media as saying, “It’s wrong to compare eras.

“He is at the top of his and I was at the top of mine, as were all the other five-time Tour winners. Should Armstrong win six, he will be great. But greater than [Eddie] Merckx, [Jacques] Anquetil or [Miguel] Indurain? I’m not so sure.”

Hinault lives in a granite farmhouse outside this tiny place. He has cattle and appears no different than the other stocky Breton farmers who wear berets and ride bikes to the store or the bar. Like them, Hinault had the disposition of the badger, that animal whose name he was given.

Once, in another French race, striking workers had formed a barrier across a road. Hinault reared back and sent a roundhouse punch to the face of a protester. The barrier quickly crumbled and the race, which Hinault would win, continued.

It is this same kind of spirit Hinault said he sees in Armstrong. Going for the sixth title, Hinault said, is a good thing if Armstrong is riding for the love of riding. “Ride for records,” Hinault said, “that’s riding into trouble.”

But Hinault also said he would stand on the Champs-Elysees on July 25 and applaud Armstrong should he ride home one more time wearing the yellow jersey of the leader. “Bravo to him,” Hinault said. “That is worthy of a big applause.”

And that was the spirit of the afternoon. There was big applause in Calorguen for Armstrong.

After finishing a strong second in the opening prologue and wearing the yellow jersey for a day after his U.S. Postal Service squad won the team time trial and helped Armstrong open a lead of at least a half minute or more over all his top challengers, Armstrong has ridden cautiously across the relatively flat stages of northern France.

While there was a brief climb near the end of Saturday’s stage, Armstrong followed the draft of other Postal riders to stay safe and aware of where the other contenders were. As part of the giant peloton, the large clot of riders content to follow behind the breakaway sprinters, it was hard to pick out Armstrong as he swooped into town.

Still, his presence was acknowledged by pointing and cheering. For those who have looked for trouble in the French crowd, who have expected Armstrong -- as an American and a Texan, same as George Bush, the president much derided here -- to be jeered or worse, threatened by a rogue in the roadside crowds, Armstrong has sharp words. “Have you heard anything negative?” he answered in a pre-race news conference.

Not for two years and not Saturday. Armstrong held his place, sixth overall and 9 minutes 35 seconds behind leader Thomas Voeckler of France.

The winner of the 127-mile stage through windy Brittany from Chateaubriant to Saint-Brieuc on the Atlantic coast was the youngest rider in the Tour, 22-year-old Italian Filippo Pozzato of Fasso Bortolo.

This knowledgeable crowd understood not to get over excited by Pozzato’s win or the way Voeckler has held the yellow jersey for three days. This is not a race for the very young or very old. “Thomas is only 25. It’s not his time,” Laval said.

When Hinault won the race in 1985, it was estimated a third of the French population had lined a roadside at some point that year.

The crowds are different now, more international. So are the winners.

Since Hinault’s fifth title, Spain’s Indurain and Armstrong have won five titles each. Stephen Roche of Ireland won a title, so did another Spaniard, Pedro Delgado. LeMond, Dane Bjarne Riis, Jan Ullrich of Germany and Marco Pantani of Italy have also won since then. There has been a man from Kazakhstan on the podium -- Alexandre Vinokourov last year -- but no one from France since drug-tainted Richard Virenque in 1997.

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Stage 7 at a Glance

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The seventh stage of the 91st Tour de France:

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*--* * Stage: A wind-swept, 127.08-mile ride from Chateaubriant to Saint-Brieuc. * Winner: Filippo Pozzato, Italy, 4 hours, 31 minutes, 34 seconds. * How others fared: Lance Armstrong, U.S., finished 55th, 10 seconds behind. Jan Ullrich, Germany, finished 30th, same time. * Yellow jersey: French cyclist Thomas Voeckler of Brioches La Boulangere retains the leader’s shirt. * Quote of the day: “Nervous, dangerous, not easy. Every day has been pretty long too.” -- Lance Armstrong, summing up the first week of cycling.

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*--* OVERALL LEADERS 1. Thomas Voeckler, France 29:09:14 2. Stuart O’Grady, Australia 3:01 behind 3. Sandy Casar, France 4:06 behind 4. Magnus Backstedt, Sweden 6:06 behind 5. Jakob Piil, Denmark 6:58 behind 6. Lance Armstrong, U.S. 9:35 behind

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