Originally Posted by
busygizmo
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I still to this day don't understand Hinault's attack after he took yellow unless he truly knew that Lemond was that much stronger and he needed more time. If he just rode conservativley he might well have won.
It makes sense if plausible deniability was important to Hinault. Those wanting to paint him as a pure villain can't seem to accept that he had some good points.
One of those good pints is unlike many Hinault was willing to actually ride in support of other riders on his team, but only for races Hinault did not particularly care about (and perhaps stage races where a bad day had removed his chances, but I'd bet he would be slow to concede he was out of the running). That good point may have misled Lemond into thinking it would happen in the TDF.