For his last season, cyclist Thibaut Pinot hopes “that the public will still vibrate with him”


“Let the public still vibrate a little with me.” The cyclist Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), during a day on the roads of his region, told Wednesday the feelings which accompany him in the last season of his career. “I have more lightness at the start of the races, I try to enjoy a little more and put less constraints on myself as a cyclist”, explained Thibaut Pinot to several media.

The 32-year-old climber became an ambassador for the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs and the Tour du Jura on Wednesday. Two one-day races, associated with the Tour du Doubs, for a triptych from Franche-Comté on April 14, 15 and 16, on roads that he came to spot. After losing his sprint at the sign against little Léo, among the fifteen young people from Jura cycling who escorted him for a few kilometers with stars in their eyes, the climber treated himself in the morning to a solitary ascent of Mont Poupet, which dominates the Jura town of Salins-les-Bains.

“Good preparation”

The three uphill finishes in three days of racing will offer the 3rd in the 2014 Tour de France his favorite profiles, and a “good preparation for the Tour of Italy” (May 6-28), on his program after the Tour de Romandie ( April 25-30). Surrounded by young local riders all day, he enjoys “those important moments as a professional, very pleasant.”

“I rode with six-year-old children this morning, that’s the age at which I started, it brought back memories,” he smiles after reaching the village of Montfaucon at the end of the day ( Doubs) via the dreaded Malate coast. A bump he skimmed with his teammate Arthur Vichot during his formative years in Besançon.

“Serene”

“My start to the season is good”, he also judged after 17 days of racing in France (Etoile de Bessèges, Tour des Alpes Maritimes and Var) and in Italy (Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico) for a few places of honour. “I hope to slam a stage of the Giro, any,” he says about his heart race, before fighting for a selection for a last Tour de France, where he has already won three stages. (2012, 2015 and 2019). “I feel it’s my last season, people often remind me of that. The only thing I can do to thank them is to get the best possible results. Trying to have a very good season until the Tour de Lombardy, that the public still vibrates a little with me.”

After a beautiful day under the sun responding to photo requests, could this popular runner, recognized and encouraged as he passes through the villages, reconsider his decision and extend the pleasure beyond 2023? “No, I don’t want to do the year too many, it’s always been my anxiety, to end the way I don’t want, on an injury or other. There I decided to give everything I have for good finish the season and have no regrets.” “I wanted to announce it quite early. I prefer to talk about it now than to lie and announce it in September. I am calm with that”, he assures before leaving alone, in the descent.



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