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France in 1969 only two other<br />
riders have managed this feat of<br />
über-domestiqueness.<br />
The first to do it was a<br />
French rider called Alain<br />
Vigneron, the very definition of<br />
the ‘loser’ we’ve already agreed<br />
is by no means a loser, with no<br />
professional wins to his name.<br />
He was signed to the Renault<br />
team by Cyrille Guimard in 1981<br />
and was trusted straight away<br />
with aiding Bernard Hinault in<br />
July. I’m not sure how much help<br />
the Badger really needed, but<br />
the relationship was a success<br />
as a third Tour de France came<br />
Hinault’s way. A fourth came the<br />
following year, again with the<br />
help of Vigneron. Hinault was<br />
going for three in a row, and five<br />
in total, in the summer of 1983<br />
but a knee injury forced him to<br />
withdraw from the race before<br />
it began. This left the door open<br />
for another teammate, Laurent<br />
Fignon, to capitalise as he took<br />
his first Tour win, again with the<br />
help of Vigneron.<br />
The following off-season<br />
was when relationships soured<br />
between Guimard and Hinault<br />
and the latter went off to form<br />
his own team, La Vie Claire.<br />
He brought Vigneron with him<br />
and again he was there when<br />
Hinault finally did make it five<br />
in 1985 and then promised<br />
to pass the crown to Greg<br />
LeMond the following year.<br />
Vigneron witnessed first-hand<br />
the mutiny and baffling tactics<br />
which coloured the battle<br />
between Hinault and LeMond<br />
as Vigneron himself made it<br />
five Tour de France assists in<br />
total, this time with his third<br />
different leader.<br />
The final rider to achieve<br />
this peculiar hat-trick was<br />
Dominique Arnaud, who<br />
was actually a teammate of<br />
Vigneron’s in 1985 when they<br />
were both on Hinault’s La Vie<br />
Claire team for that year’s Tour.<br />
(Arnaud is not to be confused<br />
with Dominique Arnould, who<br />
won a Tour stage in 1992, then<br />
moved on to the Reynolds<br />
team which won the Tour with<br />
Pedro Delgado in 1988.) Arnaud<br />
went on to ride for Banesto, in<br />
the service of Miguel Induráin<br />
during his maiden win in 1991.<br />
Sadly, Arnaud died of cancer,<br />
aged 60, during the Tour de<br />
France in 2016.<br />
But of course, there is more<br />
to cycling than just the Tour de<br />
France. What about the riders<br />
who have been able to drag<br />
their leaders not just around<br />
France, but around Italy and<br />
Spain too? There are 34 riders<br />
who can say they have assisted<br />
a win at all three Grand Tours.<br />
Both Vigneron and Arnaud are<br />
among them. Hincapie is not,<br />
given his focus on the Tour<br />
throughout his career (he rode<br />
the Tour 17 times but the Giro<br />
only once and the Vuelta twice).<br />
17
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