For forty years, no local has won the Tour de France: Bernard Hinault's legacy has broken countless French cyclists

On the seventh stage, the Tour de France peloton passed through Yffiniac. A village in Brittany with just under 5,000 inhabitants, essentially just another municipality on the endless route of the most important cycling race of the year. Yet passing through this village may have given some French cyclists unpleasant thoughts.

Yffiniac is the hometown of Bernard Hinault, the French cycling hero of the 1980s. Hinault has won all the Grand Tours, the Vuelta a España twice, the Giro d'Italia three times, and even the Tour de France five times. He holds the record for most victories, along with fellow countryman Jacques Anquetil, Belgian Eddy Merckx , and Spaniard Miguel Indurain.

During the stage, TV cameras repeatedly captured a spry 77-year-old man in the race control vehicle. He waved to the spectators and smiled: Hinault himself. More important than the passage through Yffiniac, however, is another fact: Hinault remains the last French winner of the Tour de France. That was 40 years ago.

In 2024, no Frenchman made it into the top ten of the Tour. Hinault also said before this year's Tour in an interview with the sports newspaper "L'Équipe" that the wait is likely to continue. He wouldn't have bet a centime that it would take more than 40 years for a fellow countryman to succeed him. But: "It's tough, but we don't have a champion." He compared France's professional cyclists to motorcycles: "To win the Tour, you need a 1000cc bike. We only have 750s."

According to Hinault's assessment, Kévin Vauquelin and Lenny Martinez belong in the 750cc category. From a French perspective, the two are the focus of this Tour. Vauquelin, 24, won a Tour stage in 2024, finished second behind Tadej Pogacar at the Flèche Wallonne this year, and also finished second in the Tour de Suisse. Martinez, 22, recently triumphed on the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie and in a section of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The two also attracted attention at the Tour. Martinez secured the polka-dotted jersey of the Climb Cup leader in the second week and rode solo for a long time on a tough Pyrenees stage. Vauquelin finished in the top three overall for nine stages and is currently fifth. But they're not talking about overall victory, perhaps dreaming of it, but they're realistic about their performance.

On Monday's rest day in Narbonne, Vauquelin said he was also aware of the French cyclists' long lack of success. "Hoping and dreaming is allowed. We're young, a lot can still happen." Stage wins were the goal for this year's Tour. "But of course, I'll try to hold on to my fifth place until Paris."

Vauquelin and Martinez belong to a generation of French pros who have freed themselves from the pressure of an overall victory. Hinault, known for his harsh criticism, has accused his successors for years of training too little and saying they've lost their hunger for success. But the new young riders seem to care little.

They train, remain silent, and seek success not in the elusive overall victory, but in escapes and stage wins – in battle and in spectacle. Vauquelin said: "For me, it's a dream to be in the Tour de France." Or: "I was out of breath and legs, but my heart was full." The public loves him for such words.

Previous generations of French professional cyclists had measured themselves against the bar set by Hinault. They all failed. Richard Virenque won the Tour's mountains classification seven times—a record—but was expelled from the Tour in 1998 as part of the Festina scandal . Thomas Voeckler fought heroically in 2011, saving the yellow jersey over the Pyrenees and thus fueling the hopes of the French. He failed at Alpe d'Huez and against Luxembourg's Andy Schleck.

In 2016, Romain Bardet had the misfortune that his best years coincided with those of Christopher Froome and his all-powerful Sky team. Bardet finished second. And in recent memory, no one suffered more beautifully than Thibaut Pinot , the darling of the crowd. In 2019, France was itching for a Tour victory.

But Pinot had to abandon the tour due to a knee injury, climbing into the team car in tears. That same year, Julian Alaphilippe, now with the Swiss Tudor team , defended the yellow jersey until the fourth-to-last stage, but lost it to Egan Bernal in the mountains. Since then? Nothing. Even the last victory in a top-level stage race was 18 years ago. Hope for improvement? Hardly any.

There are explanations for the French cyclists' prolonged slump. On the one hand, cycling became more globalized after Hinault's victory, and competition for traditional cycling countries like France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy increased. Greg LeMond was the first non-European to triumph in the Grande Boucle in 1986. In the doping-plagued 1990s and 2000s, there was no getting around Lance Armstrong, whose seven Tour victories were later revoked.

During this era, Laurent Jalabert and Virenque each finished second overall twice, also as doping offenders. Their Tour victories were not awarded to anyone else due to the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs. The era of the British riders followed, with Froome, Bradley Wiggins, and Geraint Thomas, then the South American era, led by Bernal.

In addition, French cycling has lost its amateur foundation. In Hinault's time, especially in Normandy and Brittany, practically every village had a strong cyclist, and every municipality hosted a critérium. Many of these local races have disappeared.

Even Hinault seems to have adjusted his expectations. When asked which Frenchman he thought would win a stage in this Tour, the grand seigneur replied: "All of them, all of them. Otherwise, there's no point in starting . . ."