In Loudenvielle
He jumped.
From the second difficulty of the day.
In the formidable Port of Balès (1755 m; 11.7 km at 7.7%), 40 km from the finish.
Far from the lead and the breakaways, Thibaut Pinot suddenly lost contact with the Yellow Jersey group whose pace was provided by the Jumbo-Visma team.
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General classification Tour de France 2020
His face suddenly hardened, hollowed out, printing pain.
The Franc-Comtois, surrounded by his teammates, suffered, huffed, grimaced, struggled to try to keep up with the pace set by his close guard.
Since Nice and the fall during the 1st stage, the leader of the team managed by Marc Madiot is healing his wounds.
That day, on the Promenade des Anglais, fell 3 kilometers from the finish, Thibaut Pinot had been hit in the shoulder, right hip and lower back.
In the Port of Balès, the back seemed to hurt him.
He tried to increase the flexibility, without managing to relax.
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The film of the 8th stage
Friday towards Lavaur (7th stage), he had passed without damage the test of the edge which walked, in the Tarn, the nightmare lived in 2019 towards Albi when he had lost 1'40 ''.
The team then put forward the strength and solidarity of a group which had learned the lesson and could look with ambition towards a Pyrenean weekend riddled with difficulties.
Hope was short-lived.
Thibaut Pinot saw the gap widen (9'49 '' on the Yellow Jersey group 15 km from the finish) and the curse of the Tour caught up with him, after painful retirements during the 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 editions .
A blow for a group which, for months, had built its ambition and its strategy on one man, leaving its house sprinter Arnaud Démare the champion of France to turn to other deadlines.
Marc Madiot, fatalist, summed up at the microphone of
France Televisions
: “He managed to hide for several days but in moments of truth, like today (Saturday), that is not enough.
We will have to adapt, to try to save our Tour de France.
We have a little pride, we are counting on the stages that will allow us to regain our morale.
We will try to fix it… ”
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General classification Tour de France 2020