Thibaut Pinot has long been encumbered by his popularity. “A little bear by nature”, according to his big brother and trainer Julien, the runner did not understand why the customers of his supermarket were looking at the contents of his trolley. But it was a bit of a whole country that was then trying to find out what the young man had in his stomach after his 3e place on the Tour de France in 2014. Eight years later, the dream is probably over. At 32, Pinot will never be the heir of Bernard Hinault, the last tricolor winner of the Grande Boucle in 1985.
But the heart has reasons that the charts ignore. Friday July 8, during the 7e stage of this 2022 edition, the whole Haute-Saône has planned to encourage Melisey’s child in the climb of the Planche-des-Belles-Filles with the secret hope of seeing him raise his arms. But the love of the Groupama-FDJ climber goes beyond the borders of his department and even his country.
Julien Pinot measured it after the victory of the brother during the last stage of the Tour of the Alps, on April 22. “I was aware of that, but we saw foreign riders – with whom he is not particularly close – coming to congratulate him. Same with journalists. I think that in the world of cycling, we like his behavior, this offensive side. Thibaut does not cheat. »
In the rain and despite a broken spoke, that day Pinot wins at Pinot. On the attack, mouth wide open, proud after a disappointment. The day before, he thinks of ending 1,007 days without a victory, of erasing months of difficulty with his round trips to Paris to heal this back bruised by his fall in Nice from the first day of the Tour 2020. It was to count without the return of Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez on the last climb.
No matter. The next day, his army of fans push #Pinot high on Twitter trends to celebrate their idol. Daniel Friebe contributes to this viral phenomenon. Reference journalist in cycling, this Englishman has always had a weakness for “Thibault”. Especially after the trauma of the Tour in 2019. “It’s the most intense moment in twenty years of Tour for me, admits this francophile. Thibaut is the strongest in the mountains, we tell ourselves that he has everything to win, to succeed Hinault, and there is this abandonment that we still cannot explain today. » Pinot threw in the towel two days before the finish on the road to Tignes, struck down by a mysterious but painful thigh injury.
France, moral defeats
Daniel Friebe often remakes the film, imagines his “frenchie” going down the Champs-Elysées in yellow, but wonders in the background “if that wouldn’t have destroyed his legend of the heroic loser”. The person concerned also asked himself the question in an interview with World four days later, evoking “the fear of not wanting this life”.
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