Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France - Softcover

Moore, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224082914 ISBN 13: 9780224082914

Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press, 2012

Synopsis

The Tour de France is sport's most compelling battle -- an annual cauldron of heroism and treachery, spectacle and controversy, mind-games and endurance.
 
But the 1986 Tour stands out as the year in which a show-stopping rivalry had spectators across the world gripped.
 
When Greg LeMond -- a blue-eyed, blonde-haired Californian boy, dubbed 'L'American' -- won the 1986 Tour, he made history. The first non-European to win the Yellow Jersey, he broke the Old World stranglehold and changed the face of the competition.
 
But LeMond's victory was hard won. It was seemingly snatched from the jaws of the man ominously dubbed 'The Badger'. Frenchman Bernard 'Le Blaireau' Hinault was five times winner of the Tour and as tough as boots. After winning the 1985 Tour, in which LeMond came a close second, Hinault vowed to return for one final Tour, and with a single purpose: to help LeMond win.
 
But could Hinault be trusted? As the race circled France, he repeatedly attacked LeMond. Hinault claimed to the press that his apparent treachery was merely intended to make LeMond stronger. But LeMond, who didn't believe him, became increasingly fearful, anxious and paranoid.
 
The Tour is renowned for its psychological complexity - but what played out in 1986 was unheard of. Why was Hinault putting his own teammate in jeopardy? Would LeMond crack under the pressure? Something sinister was going on but no one - not even LeMond -- knew quite what.
 
Slaying the Badger relives the adrenaline, the agony, the camaraderie, the betrayals, and the pure exhilaration of the 1986 Tour. Richard Moore has interviewed all the key players including the story's two enigmatic, eccentric and fiercely different protagonists. As he delves behind the scenes, the biggest conundrum of Tour history is finally laid bare.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Tour de France, 1986: The battle lines are drawn. America's hope, Greg LeMond, fights to dethrone "the Badger," French hero Bernard Hinault.

Former world champion LeMond is gunning for his first Tour victory. Hinault is clawing his way toward a record-breaking sixth.

LeMond, mercurial and raw, struggles for recognition. Hinault, fiercely combative and relentlessly aggressive, wants to go out on top.

On his side, LeMond has two team allies. But Hinault has five.

And there's one other problem: They're on the same team.

Their explosive rivalry burned the rule book, shredded friendships, shattered careers, and destroyed convention. It also led to the greatest Tour de France ever raced, an epic, chaotic, confounding, and ultimately exhilarating war of pure adrenaline, cold-blooded calculation, and extraordinary athleticism.

Heroism, treachery, spectacle, controversy, betrayal: In detail and emotion, Richard Moore brilliantly reconstructs the mind-boggling story of the 1986 Tour de France, the greatest race of them all.

About the Author

RICHARD MOORE is a freelance journalist and author. His first book, In Search of Robert Millar, won Best Biography at the 2008 British Sports Book Awards. His second book, Heroes, Villains & Velodromes, was long-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. He writes on cycling and sport and is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Sky Sports and The Scotsman. He is also a former racing cyclist who represented Scotland at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0224082914
• ISBN 13: 9780224082914
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304