The French and the Tour de France

A COUPLE WEEKS ago I put up a post which looked at the current state of French cycling. Today the New York Times has a full-length piece that looks, more specifically, at why the French can't seem to win their own race. It's quite interesting and worth a read if you're at all interested in this sort of thing. Here's one of the money quotes from Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour:

“You can see that the French riders are lazy because they make too much money,” said Hinault, whose nickname as a rider was the Badger. “It’s true that you would have to put a knife to their throat to get results. It’s embarrassing for our country.”

I've got my issues with Hinault, but still, Ouch!
CJS