In a dream world, the main street of Mélisey would be, this Saturday, September 19, the center of French cycling.
The banners bearing his effigy and his swimsuits in store windows would sketch a triumph.
The beautiful story that the inhabitants of this town of Haute-Saône would tell their children for a long time during long evenings.
She would start with “
It is there, a stone's throw from his farm, that Mr. Pinot, when he was a runner, won the Tour during the time trial of the Planche des Belles Filles.
"
But the Grande Boucle 2020 had nothing to do with the dreams of the Morgelots, as the inhabitants of the city are called.
Fairy tale dynamite, derailleur of destiny, the Tour de France will not offer the passage to the home of a winner, or simply of an ambitious one.
Glory will not come, but courage replaces it.
Mélisey will be the last station of the Stations of the Cross for a sufferer.
The journey of Thibaut Pinot, the leader of Groupama-FDJ hit in the back by a fall from the first stage in Nice, was summed up in a long procession in pain.
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His personal time trial then began.
It lasted nearly 3000 kilometers.
Not to join the Champs-Elysées, but the fields of Mélisey.
In any other race and in another year, Pinot would have already ended his ordeal.
But his passage alone in the streets of his childhood, in front of the town hall run by his father, made him clench his teeth when the slightest effort as a dancer plowed his lower back.
Abnegation beyond reason since it thus mortgages the end of the season.
"We all had pain for him"
Here, in a city where the unemployment rate is twice as high as at the national level, those who do not complain are appreciated.
“We all had pain for him and he is exemplary of courage, breathes Laurent, the owner of the Town Hall café where Pinot sometimes comes to lunch.
We are just happy to see him still racing.
Here, we respect his pain.
"
One of the banners in Mélisey in honor of Thibaut Pinot / LP / Christophe Bérard
During the tens of seconds he will cross his city, he will be celebrated.
A fan-zone has been installed and a giant screen erected.
One of the two sponsors of his team, the FDJ, distributed to his customers nearly 4,000 T-shirts with his name which they will display along the barriers.
On the back, we can read the cry of ecstasy uttered a year ago by his boss Marc Madiot at the time of his victory at the Tourmalet: "You're tall, you're very tall, you're very, very tall ".
This year, for his friends and neighbors, Pinot is no less great.
Just lower in the ranking.
And that doesn't change the affection for this discreet champion who everyone leaves behind when he leaves their farm.
Arrival at Tourmalet
A stone's throw from the Passage du Tour, the bakery displays a signed jersey of the local champion and a portrait with the slogan "Only victory is beautiful".
An echo of the tattoo in Italian on the champion's right biceps: “Solo la vittoria e bella”.
Betty, the baker, has a lot of affection for "Thibaut".
"He always comes to buy dessert here," she smiles.
He is very foodie.
I didn't believe he would last until us.
He has merit.
I'm sure seeing us by the side of the road will give him strength.
"
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But the Pinot garden is not limited to the city borders.
The Planche des Belles Filles, climbed hundreds of times in training, will offer him a nice last ramp.
As lovers deposit rose petals, his admirers have painted hundreds of “Pinot” on the last 300 meters of asphalt.
These inscriptions will last less than the legend of a winner of the Tour but, by the time the rain and the sun erase them, they will tell the story of a brave man.
