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EsCiclismo.com · Road Competition · 05/09/2020
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), who carried on his shoulders the weight of the French hopes in the 2020 Tour de France, suffered a faint on Saturday that deprives him of any options for success and said that after signing “another failure” he begins to consider Her future.
“Today my race enters a new stage, there are already too many failures,” said the Groupama-FDJ rider after crossing the finish line of Loudenvielle almost 20 minutes behind 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 was left behind in the group of favorites on the climb to the port of Bals, the first special category ascent of this edition of the race.
Despite being supported by several companions, he reached the goal in a painful way.
“It is a complicated day. I want to apologize to my colleagues, those who support me, because there are already too many failures. Today my career enters a new phase. I have always said that cycling is about fighting, enjoying and winning races, but now there are too many failures, “he said.
Pinot said he has no plans to retire from the race for now and encouraged his teammates to go for stage victories.
Its director, Marc Madiot, confessed that Pinot had suffered physical problems in recent days, but that 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 at the Tourmalet and a second place at Prat dAlbis, he left in tears on the way to Tignes.
The cyclist from the Vosges came to Tour de France with ambitions to win it, something no Frenchman has achieved since Bernard Hinault in 1985.
Pinot has made the Tour de France a top priority, despite having achieved other important victories, such as the Tour of Lombarda two years ago.
In the Tour de France he has three triumphs, last year at the Tourmalet, at Porrentruy in 2013 and at Alpe dHuez two years later.
Now, the eyes of the country are focused on Romain Bardet, who is in fourth place and who managed to scratch the favorites for a few seconds in the first Pyrenean stage.
The AG2R La Mondiale rider, second in Paris in 2016 and third the following year, had not planned to participate in the Tour this season, in which his priority was to be Italy tour.
But the coronavirus pandemic changed the calendar completely and the French, 29, 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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