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Tour de France The Groupama leader had to forget about any option for the Tour de France
AFP
Thibaut Pinot, who carried on his shoulders the weight of French hopes in the Tour de France 2020, suffered this Saturday a faint that deprives him of options for success and assured that after signing “another failure” he begins to consider his future: “My career enters a new stage today, there are already too many failures”. The cyclist of Groupama crossed the goal of Loudenvielle almost 20 minutes from the favorites.
Pinot was already forced to withdraw in the last two editions of the Tour when he was in good position to climb the podium in Paris for the second time in his career, having done so in 2014.
The 30-year-old cyclist said that he suffers from low back pain that made it impossible for him to pedal, which is why he fell short of the group of favorites on the ascent to the port of Bals, first promotion of special category of this edition of the race. Despite being surrounded by several companions, he reached the goal in a painful way: “It is a complicated day. I want to apologize to my teammates, to those who support me. I have always said that cycling is about fighting, enjoying and winning races, but there are already too many failures”, affirm.
Pinot said he has no plans to retire from the race for now and encouraged his teammates to go for stage victories. Your director, Marc madiotI confessed that Pinot had physical problems in the last few days, but they were confident that he could recover, something that has not happened. “We have been masking it for a few days, but when the difficult thing has come we have not been able to do it,” he said.
Last year, when he was fifth overall and one of the strongest men on the mountain, with a win in the Tourmalet and a second place in Prat de Albis, left in tears on the way to Tignes. The cyclist from the Vosges came to the Tour with ambitions to win it, something that no French has achieved from Bernard Hinault in 1985.
Now, the eyes of the country are focused on Romain Bardet, which occupies the fourth place and that got to scratch a few seconds to the favorites in the first Pyrenean stage.
The cyclist of AG2R, second in Paris in 2016 and third the following year, he had not planned to participate in the Tour this season, in which his priority was to be Italy tour. However, the coronavirus pandemic changed the calendar completely and the 29-year-old Frenchman finally decided to participate in the gala round, in which he has not failed since 2013 and has signed five “top 10”.
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