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France’s hopes that Thibaut Pinot could improve his game in the overall rankings after last year’s near miss at the Tour de France took a final and devastating blow on stage 8 on Saturday when the Groupama-FDJ leader lost more 25 minutes in a high mountain stage. .
Pinot blamed his colossal defeat directly on his back injury, caused by his big crash on stage 1 in Nice last weekend, when he fell in the final three kilometers.
Although the first week passed without further injuries, there were reports that he needed up to three hours of treatment a day for his back. And the moment of truth came on the Tour when the Frenchman took off badly on Saturday at the Porte de Balès, the first of the race. out of category climb, where he could be seen repeatedly stretching and grimacing in pain.
Despite being surrounded by his teammates, Pinot was unable to limit the damage and mercilessly slid backwards, straying away from the overall favorites and out of the Tour game this year.
“I had so much back pain that I couldn’t pedal,” Pinot told French television at the end. “The Tour is not over, I never thought of leaving it, but it has been a very difficult year.
“I want to apologize to my colleagues and those who support me; there have been many setbacks. Perhaps this is a turning point in my career,” he added. “I always said that what I enjoyed was fighting for races. This was too much for me.”
Pinot insisted their Tour options weren’t over, though they would now focus on stage wins.
“The team is very strong, and I’m crossing my fingers to get one,” he concluded.
Pinot’s initial success on the Tour came in 2012, when he achieved a stage win at the Jura, but was followed by a massive Grand Tour roller coaster, with a retirement on the 2013 Tour.
He then followed a third place overall in 2014, and then took a win over Alpe d’Huez in 2015, having lost 10 minutes to overall winner Chris Froome in the first grand final at the top.
After finishing fourth at the Giro d’Italia in 2017, Pinot left the Tour that same year. He then left the Giro, again ill, when he was about to get on the podium in 2018. The Vuelta a España was followed by two stage victories in September, but in 2019, hopes of an outright Tour victory, after a magnificent journey . in the Pyrenees, he collapsed in the Alps, where he had to leave with a thigh injury.
It remains to be seen what Pinot can accomplish on the rest of this year’s Tour, but any hope of finally breaking the overall standings at his home race has had to be put aside for another season.
