Although a knee injury forced him to quit the 1980 Tour de France while in the lead, he returned to win the World Championship road race later in the year.

After winning the 1983 Vuelta a España, a return of his knee problems forced him to miss that year's Tour de France, won by his teammate Laurent Fignon.

[16] The young Hinault was heavily influenced by his trainer at the Club Olympique Briochin, Robert Le Roux, who had earlier worked with 1965 World Champion Tom Simpson.

[17] Hinault won nineteen races in his second season as an amateur, including the national junior championship against opposition a year older than him, such as future professional Bernard Vallet.

This was his last season as an amateur and again was highly successful, including a victory in his home town of Yffiniac towards the end of the year, where an alliance formed by four other riders was unable to hold him back.

[21] In January 1975, Bernard Hinault turned professional with the Gitane–Campagnolo team, run by former World Champion Jean Stablinski, on a lean wage of 2,500 francs per month.

[23] His results in his first season were impressive, with a seventh place at Paris–Nice and a victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe, earning him the Promotion Pernod, the prize for the best new professional in France.

[28] During the spring classics season of 1977, Hinault left the Tour of Flanders before it had even started, not wanting to risk his health in a rain- and cold-affected race on cobbled roads.

While in the leader's jersey on the penultimate stage to Grenoble, Hinault attacked up the Col de Porte, leading Van Impe and Bernard Thévenet by 1:30 minutes when crossing the summit.

Up the finishing climb in Grenoble, he briefly dismounted, still shocked from the near-death experience and pushed his bike for about 20 m (22 yd), before remounting and winning the stage eighty seconds ahead of Van Impe.

"[32]At the end of the season, Hinault won the Grand Prix des Nations, an individual time trial, with a substantial margin of 3:15 minutes ahead of favourite Joop Zoetemelk.

A sixth win was prevented on the final day of the Grand Tour, on which a short time trial was raced in the afternoon, held at San Sebastián in the Basque Country.

[40] In the Tour de France, Hinault fell behind early to challenger Zoetemelk when Renault lost two minutes to Mercier during the team time trial.

Thus weakened and slowed by spectator interference at a bike change, he lost 1:40 minutes to Zoetemelk on the following day's uphill time trial.

The following day, stage 16 to Alpe d'Huez, ended with Zoetemelk, Hinault and the temporary leader of the general classification and thus yellow jersey wearer Michel Pollentier separated by only 18 seconds.

He bounced back at the La Flèche Wallonne classic in April, when he caught up to a breakaway by Giuseppe Saronni and Bernt Johansson, outsprinting the former to win the race.

[b] Hinault started the Giro d'Italia as odds-on favourite, pitted against local riders Francesco Moser and Giuseppe Saronni, who had the home crowd on their side.

Following a fourth place at the prologue in Genoa, Hinault made a spontaneous visit to Fausto Coppi's home of Castellania, paying respect to the first rider ever to have won Giro and Tour in the same year.

[68] Hinault returned from the disappointment of the Tour to start at the World Championship road race, held on a very tough parcours in Sallanches, France, often named the hardest course in the history of the event.

He suffered seven crashes and tyre punctures, but reached the finish at the velodrome with the lead group, where he outsprinted favourites Roger De Vlaeminck and Moser.

[85] Both joined Hinault for the Vuelta a España, where he faced stiff competition from local riders like Marino Lejarreta, Julián Gorospe, and Alberto Fernández.

Their directeur sportif became Swiss coach Paul Köchli, who had made a name for himself with innovative and effective training methods, leaving Hinault a lot of freedom while at the same time scientifically measuring his progress.

In late September, he took his fifth and final victory at the Grand Prix des Nations, riding the 90 km (56 mi) time trial at a then record speed of 44.19 km/h (27.46 mph).

[103] On 21 January 1986, Hinault was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur) by French president François Mitterrand.

[110] In the team time trial on stage 2, Fignon and Système U gained almost two minutes on La Vie Claire, partly due to Hinault deciding that the squad would wait for two struggling riders, Niki Rüttimann and Guido Winterberg.

[108] Any signs of appeasement between the rivalling teammates was shattered by Hinault in a television interview shortly after the stage finish, when he declared that the race was not yet over, even though he trailed LeMond by 2:45 minutes.

[125] After his retirement from professional cycling, Bernard Hinault moved to his farm and bred dairy cows, assisted by his cousin René, who had become an agricultural engineer.

[130] In June 2020, Hinault became part of a group of businessmen investing into saving the cycling equipment company Mavic, who are a long-time sponsor of the Tour de France.

"[145] With a résumé of victories that includes all three Grand Tours (all of them more than once), the World Road Championships and a number of classics, Hinault has often been cited among the greatest cyclists of all time.

According to Fotheringham, the nickname originates from Hinault's early training partners, Maurice Le Guilloux and Georges Talbourdet, who would use the term to tease the young rider.