Special envoy to La Planche des Belles Filles,
On the road going up to La Planche des Belles Filles, it's all for him.
Pinot.
His name is painted, worn, sung.
Thibaut Pinot dreamed since the revelation of the route of this Tour de France of this stage between Lure (where he was born), passing by Mélisey where he lives, where his father Régis is the mayor and going to hang on to the top of La Planche des Beautiful girls.
On his training routes, Thibaut Pinot had imagined a resounding epilogue.
The episode, before the parade on the Champs-Elysées, will have just put balm on a runner who sees his ordeal end.
“It will be an important moment in my career.
Very few runners are lucky enough to have a stopwatch in their village.
It will be my happiness of the Tour.
I'm going to have chills to see everyone by the side of the road, ”he said before going for a run in his garden.
Departure of Thibaut Pinot in this time trial, at home!
The Frenchman will try to have fun on his land, after having experienced a complicated Tour de France # TDF2020
▶ Follow the race live: https://t.co/DulQRNcNxqpic.twitter.com/aaRsr3rL0V
- France tv sport (@francetvsport) September 19, 2020
In Mélisey, he was greeted by smoke, flags, T-shirts, cries.
A moving guard of honor.
Falling during the 1st stage (Nice-Nice), the leader of the team led by Marc Madiot, in vain, ran after form.
He never had the physical form to express himself.
He was able, out of pride, to slip into breakaways but never been able to fight for a stage victory.
During the second day of rest, in Grenoble, he confided: “I have rarely had such bad feelings, I force twice as much as I should.
I feel like I do two steps every day.
It's out of pride that I don't want to give up, to drop the team.
There are days when I'm one of the worst in the bunch.
I was scheduled to be in front and I am fighting to be part of the gruppetto.
But there is no other solution. ”
He will skip the Worlds, September 27, in Imola
After a 2019 Tour that he had left his mark (a stage victory at the top of the Tourmalet, accompanying his domination in the Pyrenees, before having to give up, injured 48 hours before the arrival in Paris), he had returned with ambition on this event which has fun playing bad… tricks on him.
Like its leader, the Groupama-FDJ formation suffered, never managing to shine, despite the repeated efforts of Stefan Küng and Valentin Madouas, in particular.
Thibaut Pinot, during the 20th stage of the Tour, took advantage of the intense moment of sharing.
A day crossed with chills (7th provisional time at 2'10 '' from Remi Cavagna, while there are 29 riders left in the race) but which he had imagined so different.
This Sunday, he will turn the page of this Tour, take the time to reflect calmly on the rest of the season (he has decided to ignore the Worlds, on September 27, in Imola) where priority will be given to Vuelta (20 October-8 November) hoping to have digested the immense disappointment of a Tour which will have done him so much harm ...
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