Slaying the Badger

Greg LeMond, Bernard Hinault, and the Greatest Tour de France

By: Richard Moore

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Bernard Hinault is "Le Blaireau", the Badger. Tough as old boots, he is the old warrior of the French peloton, as revered as he is feared for his ferocious attacks. He has won five Tours de France, marking his name into the history books as a member of cycling's most exclusive club.

Yet as the 1986 Tour de France ascends into the mountains, a boyish and friendly young American named Greg LeMond threatens the Badger - and France's entire cycling heritage.

The stakes are high. Winning for Hinault means capping his long cycling career by becoming the first man to win the Tour six times. For LeMond, a win will bring America its first Tour de France victory. So why does their rivalry shock the world? LeMond and Hinault ride for the same team.

Asked by a reporter why he attacked his own teammate, the Badger replies, "Because I felt like it." and "If he doesn't buckle, that means he's a champion and deserves to win the race. I did it for his own good." LeMond becomes paranoid, taking other riders' feed bags in the feed zone and blaming crashes on sabotage. Through it all, with the help of his American teammate Andy Hampsten, LeMond becomes the first American to win the Tour de France.

©2012 Richard Moore (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[ Slaying the Badger is] a gripping narrative of this psychological and physical three-week war." ( Wall Street Journal)

Great book about the Greatest Tour

Well researched, written, and formatted book about the Greatest Tour. What a race it was. This book has made me relive it all over.

Really a great story and cycling story, loved it.

So much to take in... all the high profile characters, all the interviews, back story... it was all woven together for a book that keeps you wanting more.

As a cycling enthusiast, it would be a must listen. Inspired because of it, Thanks.

A master telling of the greatest TDF ever

Great back story of this incredible rivalry between two teammate in most exciting edition of the Tour de France ever. It was the second race I ever watched as a kid. Brilliantly read by my favorite narrator Shaun Grindell,

I Love this book!

I feel like i just had a new Grimms Fairy Tail read to me. Now that i listened to the book, i will sit down red it too.

What a great telling of a great TDF!

Wish Richard Moore had read it himself. It’s not that Grindell’s reading is terrible, he just has an up and down cadence to it that I found distracting. Moore’s research was meticulous. Also wish he was still with us. The Cycling Podcast misses him as well.

Very Entertaining!

I remember when Greg LeMond won the Tour de France and thought how difficult that must've been - this book tells just how difficult is really was, not only physically but also mentally and emotionally.

Good book, narration annoying and uninspired.

This book reads off the page better than it is read for us here.

The narrator is tolerable at best. Grindell for some reason ends almost every single sentence with an upward tilt in his pitch along with a breathless word. It ends up sounding like he’s reading you some very intense mystery novel or something. It sounds like he’s trying to make the content more interesting and suspenseful than it really is. Just bizarre. He also does not give any of the people in the book their own voice. There is absolutely zero difference between the “author’s voice” and someone in the book talking from a quote seamlessly and without any change in his voice at all.

That said, it does get less bothersome with time. I’m not sure if it mostly just to do with Shaun Grindell’s accent, and it’s possible his narration may be less annoying to someone who’s from the UK.

A must read 4 cycling fans. Beware language.

I really enjoyed this book. It brought me back to the first Tour de France I ever followed, which was largely responsible for my getting into cycling. The author is through in the many figures he has interviewed. It is well written and easy to keep focused on.

Warning: Don't play audio around children. I don't recommend it for younger readers because of the inclusion of a lot of foul language in the quotes. It's a shame. They could have been edited or replaced with symbols and made this a great book for my older kids at home. It would have detracted nothing from the book. Lost one star for that.

A must read for any cycling enthusiast

Loved it...takes you behind the scenes with all the players involved with the (second) greatest Tour de France ever. (I think Greg Lemond's '88 win is the best)

Epic re-telling of a classic race

This book did a tremendous job at recounting the most fascinating Tour of all time, which occurred less than one year after my birth. I really feel like I understand Bernard Hinault, and he’s much more than the hard man I once believed him to be.