The yellow-and-black-striped jerseys of the French Renault team were among the most distinctive in cycling in the 1980s. Above all, however, the team was synonymous with success: between 1978 and 1985, it won the Tour de France six times with Bernard Hinault and Laurent Fignon. It was the last great era of French cycling to date, largely thanks to team manager Cyrille Guimard – an innovative thinker who was, however, a controversial figure in his management style.
The History of Its Origins
The car manufacturer Renault was a latecomer to the world of cycling – unlike its industry rival Peugeot, which had been funding its own racing team for many decades. In 1974, Renault acquired a 33 per cent stake in Micmo, a company which, amongst other things, produced Gitane-brand bicycles. A year later, the company was taken over entirely by Renault.
Also in 1975, Micmo, under the name Gitane, set up a cycling team in partnership with Campagnolo. Almost at the same time, the idea of getting more heavily involved in sports sponsorship gained traction at Renault. In 1977, the state-owned company fielded its own works team in Formula 1, and from 1978 onwards, Renault also adopted the name of the cycling team.
The most significant victory
Hinault won the Tour de France four times whilst wearing the Renault jersey – it’s hard to imagine anything better for a French sponsor. However, his victory in the 1980 Liège–Bastogne–Liège race is the more remarkable story. There were 174 riders on the start list, though some are said not to have started at all: with temperatures around freezing and snowfall from the very start of the race, many preferred to stay in their hotels.
Those who set off tackled the race wearing woollen hats and thick gloves. Only 21 riders reached the finish line after 244 kilometres, with Hinault emerging as the winner of this almost seven-hour ordeal. He was no longer able to celebrate at the finish. He lacked the strength to do so, as he later admitted.
Hinault covered the final 80 kilometres on his own, spurred on by team manager Guimard in the support vehicle. Halfway through the race, whilst it was snowing, Guimard had told Hinault to take off his rain jacket – after all, the race was only just beginning. According to Hinault himself, he was initially taken aback, but obeyed his boss’s order. Head down, and generating his own body heat with all his might – he had no other choice.
Shortly afterwards, he caught up with the leading group. No one could match Hinault’s tenacity that day. At the finish line, his lead over the runner-up, the Dutchman Hennie Kuiper, was 9 minutes and 24 seconds. As Hinault reported many years later, he never fully regained feeling in two of his fingers after the race.
The Boss
As a powerful sprinter, Cyrille Guimard won numerous races, including seven stages of the Tour de France. At the age of 28, however, he was forced to end his career due to knee problems. Just one year later, in 1976, the Gitane-Campagnolo team appointed him as sporting director – and a few months later celebrated Lucien Van Impe’s victory in the Tour de France. It was the first of a total of seven overall Tour victories for Guimard as team manager.
Despite his young age, he had clear ideas about how a cycling team should operate. His views were at odds with standard practice, which is why he was initially regarded as an outsider in the cycling world. Instead of competing in races all year round, Guimard drew up race and training schedules for his riders, focusing on selected highlights of the season. To ensure better support, he also deliberately kept the squad small, at between 15 and 20 riders. And to foster a team spirit, he introduced a salary system based on the team’s results. He also relied on performance data, used Renault’s wind tunnel for aerodynamic tests and employed sports physicians.
Guimard’s preference for young riders with potential meant that, whilst Renault often had the most talented squad, it did not necessarily have the strongest team overall. This did not go uncriticised, as Guimard was virtually unwilling to sign experienced top stars – he stubbornly stuck to his system. In terms of scouting, however, he broke Peugeot’s dominance in French cycling and snatched a number of talented riders from his rival – including Fignon, Pascal Jules, Thierry Marie, Marc Madiot and Charly Mottet.
As innovative as Guimard was on the one hand, his management style is said to have been just as authoritarian and pedantic on the other. In the media, he was nicknamed ‘Napoleon’, and was said to have a tendency towards control freakery. In his biography *We Were Young and Carefree*, Fignon describes Guimard, in essence, as a visionary, but at the same time as someone with shortcomings in his interpersonal skills.
The most influential riders
Bernard Hinault
In the media, Hinault was often portrayed as a grumpy and combative figure who did not think much of dealing with the press. Nevertheless, he was held in high regard in France and was the undisputed leader of the peloton. He made his breakthrough at the age of 23 with victory in the 1978 Tour. Guimard played a major part in this, moulding the impetuous talent into a composed winner: Hinault first had to learn to pace himself rather than waste his energy on countless attacks. Hinault was unbeatable, particularly in time trials, and was also feared for his sheer willpower. He was nicknamed ‘the Badger’, a reference to the animal’s fighting spirit. However, Hinault was powerless against his own body. Persistent knee problems forced him to withdraw from the Tour in 1980 and to retire completely in 1983. In 1986, at the age of 32, he ended his career as a five-time Tour winner.
Laurent Fignon
In public, the Frenchman became known as ‘the Professor’. This was partly due to the fact that he had started university, as well as his blond ponytail and his nickel-rimmed glasses. Fignon’s often sharp and matter-of-fact manner, which was occasionally perceived as arrogant, did the rest. In 1982, Guimard brought him into the team as a successful amateur. From the outset, Fignon had a complicated relationship with Hinault – due to their differing personalities, but also because Fignon showed little deference to the team hierarchy. When Hinault missed the 1983 Tour due to injury, Fignon, aged 22, surprisingly stepped into the limelight and claimed the overall victory. A year later, he repeated this success, crushing Hinault – who had been riding for Team La Vie Claire since 1984 – by a margin of 10 minutes and 32 seconds. In 2010, Fignon died of cancer at the age of 50.
Greg LeMond
In the winter of 1980, Hinault and team manager Guimard travelled to the USA to persuade the 19-year-old American Greg LeMond to switch teams. The 1979 Junior World Champion had several contract offers on the table, including one from Peugeot. However, Hinault and Guimard’s efforts paid off: LeMond signed for Renault. At that time, professional cyclists from the USA were still considered something of a rarity. But by the time of his surprise victory at the 1983 Road World Championships in Altenrhein, Switzerland, at the very latest, LeMond had changed perceptions of US cycling. The Californian was regarded as talkative and lively, but on the bike he was just as unyielding as Hinault. After finishing third on his Tour debut in 1984, he left Renault. Guimard regarded this as a betrayal, but LeMond saw no way of getting past Fignon within the team. Instead, he was drawn by the prospect of becoming Hinault’s heir apparent at La Vie Claire, coupled with a lucrative salary running into millions. In 1985, he helped Hinault to Tour victory; in 1986, LeMond went on to win the first of his three Tour de France titles.
The biggest controversy
When Guimard took over the team in 1976, he is said to have first convinced Hinault to stay. He recognised the potential in the then 21-year-old to become a Tour winner at an early stage. Both were from Brittany and found common ground – not always harmoniously, but initially constructively, leading to shared successes. Guimard understood which buttons to press with Hinault to tickle his pride.
However, an egocentric star had never featured in Guimard’s vision of how a team should be led. Consequently, Hinault’s growing prestige put a strain on their working relationship. Hinault believed he was entitled to a greater say, particularly regarding signings and the team’s structure. For Guimard, this was unthinkable: his team, his decisions. In August 1983, Hinault gave the group’s management an ultimatum: him or Guimard. Hinault did not, however, have any strong arguments in his favour. Following knee surgery in July 1983, his return to racing was uncertain. Renault opted for Guimard without hesitation.
Hinault subsequently moved to the new team set up by the French businessman Bernard Tapie; this flamboyant and controversial figure reportedly promised him a salary running into millions and all the freedom he wanted. Sponsored by Tapie’s food retail chain La Vie Claire, Hinault secured his fifth and final Tour victory in 1985.
The End
Following the 1985 Tour de France, Renault announced that it would be withdrawing from cycling at the end of the season. The company had been incurring heavy losses for years, including 12.5 billion francs in 1984. The state-owned company was subsequently given a new chief executive, who implemented rigorous cost-cutting measures. The reported annual expenditure of around 15 million francs on cycling was scrapped.
To ensure the team’s continued existence, Cyrille Guimard and Laurent Fignon set up a marketing company through which they took over ownership of the team. Their aim was to become less dependent on sponsors, who from then on would only have naming rights but no say in the team’s management. It is a model on which virtually every team in professional cycling is based today. For 1986, they found a new sponsor in the supermarket chain Système U.
The trophy cabinet
- Tour de France 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 (Bernard Hinault), 1983, 1984 (Laurent Fignon)
- Giro d’Italia 1980, 1982 (Hinault)
- Vuelta a España 1978, 1983 (Hinault)
- Tour of Lombardy 1979 (Hinault)
- Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1980 (Hinault)
- Paris–Roubaix 1981 (Hinault), 1985 (Marc Madiot)
executive floor
Cyrille Guimard was a friend
(in the car) and Bernard Hinault
Perhaps not, but successful business partners
express train
The Renault team, with Bernard Hinault (far right), in full swing during the team time trial at the 1982 Tour