Happy Birthday, Badger!

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Happy Birthday, Badger! French cycling legend Bernard Hinault turns 72 today. He won a then-record 5 Tours de France; his final win coming in 1985. Coincidentally, it was the last time a Frenchman won the Tour. There are three Grand Tours held each year - Giro d’ Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a Espania. During his career, Hinault entered 13 Grand Tours. He won 10 of them. He won 3 of the 5 monument races held each year, and 3 of the 6 annual classics races. He was also a World Champion. In all, he won 147 professional races. After he retired, Hinault became a dairy cow breeder, and performed many roles for ASO, the company that runs the Tour de France, including many years spent as Tour Ambassador (when he once famously shoved a protester off of the podium during a Tour de France stage presentation.) In 2007, then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy gave Hinault the Officer of the Legion of Honor designation. Happy Birthday, sir! Link is to a short video of Hinault winning the 1980 Liege Bastogne Liege, becoming the first Frenchman in 25 years to win the classic: