Julien Moreau // Photo credit: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP
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08:35, July 01, 2023
I love you, me neither. The love story between Thibaut Pinot and the Grande Boucle is tortuous, filled with love, but also with hate. In nine participations, the Franc-Comtois gave up four times and very often, when he went to the end, it was to accomplish great things. Here are the five milestones in Thibaut Pinot’s Tour de France career.
Stage victory at Porrentruy in 2012
As the youngest rider in the 2012 Tour de France, Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who would ride for the FDJ – BigMat team, won stage eight after arriving alone in the Swiss town of Porrentruy. Pinot, who was 22 years old, signed the first French victory in this Tour de France 2012. Thomas Voeckler, Pierre Rolland and Pierre Fédrigo will win other stages during this Grande Boucle. That day, the young Franc-Comtois was 26 seconds ahead of the first group of favorites, settled by the Australian Cadel Evans, outgoing winner of the Tour.
“At the briefing, it was not planned. I was instructed to stay with the leaders. I disobeyed. checked this step. There was a chance that it would go to the end. In the final, I still had juice, I was carried by the public. It sure helps. I no longer felt my legs at the end, I had chills. I never thought I would win a stage of the Tour this year,” said Thibaut Pinot after his success in Switzerland.
Before this victory in the Tour de France, Thibaut Pinot had never won in a major race. This victory and his 10th place in the final general classification immediately placed him as a potential successor to Bernard Hinault, nicknamed “the Badger”.
Third in the Tour de France in 2014
Surely his most successful Tour de France. Throughout this Grande Boucle, the Frenchman showed great regularity and passed between the drops of the multiple retirements of the big favorites like Christopher Froome and Alberto Contador. Thibaut Pinot is the second best rider of this Tour in the mountains and he comes up against the Italian Vincenzo Nibali who is in the form of his life. In the fight for a place on the podium with Jean-Christophe Péraud and Alejandro Valverde, he finished third in this Tour de France and left with the white jersey of the best young rider in his suitcases.
“The goal at the start was the top 10, but given my legs, I had to do better and the white jersey had to come next if I got there. I like to attack, have fun in the passes, it’s my way of racing. For me, that’s the real bike. You have to savor this podium, “said Thibaut Pinot on arrival on the Champs-Élysées. The Franc-Comtois and Jean-Christophe Péraud became the first French riders to finish on the podium since Richard Virenque in 1998.
Stage victory in Alpe d’Huez in 2015
Presented, rightly in relation to his potential, as the number one French hope in the big tours, Thibaut Pinot followed a painful journey in this Tour 2015. The protege of Yvon Madiot had the great merit of persevering after his way of the cross of the first week: the serious fall of his teammate William Bonnet, mechanical glitches and health problems.
Pinot arrived at the foot of the first passes with a handicap of more than eight minutes overall. Victim of the heat, a weather element he does not like, he fell further into the Pyrenees and had to change strategy by choosing to focus on a stage success. The Frenchman was very close to winning in Mende, but he failed in his task, launching into a cock duel with Romain Bardet. The two Frenchmen observed each other too much and left the victory to the Briton to Steve Cummings.
His winning reaction at L’Alpe d’Huez saved his Tour. “I finished rather well, I took the cash compared to other years, it is positive for the rest of my career”, had estimated Pinot.
Stage victory at the Tourmalet in 2019…
A day that will be remembered. A Thibaut Pinot in the form of his life raises his arms in front of the gratin of the peloton at the top of the Tourmalet. This arrival at the top had been on his mind since his chronometric disbursement in Albi a few days earlier. Pinot, five letters, omnipresent on the asphalt of the 19 kilometers of the Tourmalet climb, seemed engraved on the slopes of this Pyrenean giant.
The public was crazy behind the Franc-Comtois, caught up in the dream of hearing the Marseillaise in the sky of Paris. On the evening of this 14th stage of the Tour de France 2019, Thibaut Pinot is in 6th place in the general classification, 1’10” from Geraint Thomas and his ascending form suggests great things.
…before dropping out the same year
For people like us, dreams don’t exist. This 19th stage of the Tour de France 2019 is another black day for French cycling. Everyone knows it, it is he who is heading for the final victory in this Tour de France, he is a notch above everyone else. In one of the first difficulties of the day, Pinot goes up to a medical car to be treated there. But nothing helps. He is left behind by the group of favorites and flies away with him, the dream of finding a successor to Bernard Hinault.
In tears, the Franc-Comtois dismounts at the 36th kilometer of this accursed stage. At the same time, France is crying with him. According to a press release from his team, Groupama-FDJ, Pinot suffered from a muscle injury to his left thigh after a blow received during the 18th stage of the Tour de France. In addition, according to his athletic directors, they had significant pain and difficulty walking.
The blow will be total a few hours later, when Julian Alaphilippe loses his yellow jersey in favor of Egan Bernal. Without the ardor of Pinot and the golden combination of Alaphilippe, the Tour de France clearly loses its flavor and for many French people, it stops at the top of the Col de l’Iseran.