It was there, in his house glued to the foot of the mountain, that Bernard Hinault, injured in one knee, took refuge to flee the pack of journalists who tracked him the evening of his abandonment on the Tour, in Pau, he forty years ago almost to the day. By simple delicacy, Hubert Arbes agrees to return to the episode that made him famous, and that has been harassed since then.
“He was really bruised, says the friend and former teammate. It's been two weeks since we took the rain, Bernard had already won three stages and he wore the yellow jersey but he had tendonitis. It was late, Cyrille Guimard (Editor's note: the sporting director of the Renault-Gitane team) wanted to spare him. I had given up three days earlier in Nantes. I went to pick him up by car and he slept at my home in Lourdes before returning to his home in Brittany. "
A lieutenant by Bernard Hinault
History is revealing of man. Hubert Arbes is a lieutenant, a follower of the greatest French cycling champion of all time, who he helped conquer four yellow jerseys (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982), as he did during the first of his six Tours with Lucien Van Impe. At 70, the native of Lys, a hamlet of 300 souls posted at the entrance to the Ossau valley, between Pau and Laruns, which the peloton would have had to link this Sunday without the Covid-19 pandemic, kept its shape fine mountain people.
Owner of a cycle shop after stopping his professional career in 1982 - he sold it last year -, pilot of race stewards on the Tour for almost thirty years, he jumps from generation to generation the other without particular nostalgia, welcoming developments and renewals without magnifying the past.
"Everything has changed," he says. I was running with old-fashioned, strappy toe clips. We weren't talking about nutrition at the time. We ate red meat regularly. The peloton was going slower but the Tours were about 1000 km longer than today and we only had one day off. It took three weeks. "
"The best, I think it's Bernal"
His memories are obviously marked by the Badger that he saw emerge and rule the world. “From the start (Editor's note: first Tour victorious on his first try in 1978) , he was above, he showed such strength. He was not afraid of anything and he could decide on a tactic at the last moment in the middle of the race. He was very hard with his opponents, with journalists, with himself, but with us, his teammates, he was always very calm, respectful. He was not like Merckx, he didn't necessarily want to win everything, he was targeting his goals. "
Who has taken up the torch today? "The best, it seems to me that it is Bernal even if the preparation disturbed by the confinement can reveal surprises, specifies the former runner. Froome is a bit aging but he is a really good person. He is humble and good with everyone, I don't understand why people don't like him. "
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On September 6, Hubert Arbes will be on the stage from Pau to Laruns, close to his home where he lives with his wife and his dogs, not far from his daughter and a grandson champion of BMX, at eleven years. Closest to a Tour that he never really left.
