OF with AFP
Thibaut Pinot will not be in Brittany this Sunday. The leader of Groupama-FDJ, whose main objective is the Tour de France which will leave Nice on August 29, will not compete in the French Championships at Grand-Champ in Morbihan due to “back pain”, his team announced this Monday, the day after his second place at the Dauphiné.
“Feeling back pain following his fall on Saturday on the Dauphiné, Thibaut Pinot must observe a period of rest. He will therefore not be able to take the start of the French Championships on Sunday ”, indicates the press release, which is reassuring about his state of form. "It is now shot and focused 100% on the Tour de France," provides training led by Marc Madiot.
The course of the French Championships, long (237 km) and cut out for puncheurs, was in any case not the ideal ground to envisage a success of the Franc-Comtois. The main concern, ultimately, concerns the way Thibaut Pinot let the victory slip away in the Dauphiné. Well in legs during the first stages, leader of the race the morning of the last after the abandonment of Primoz Roglic, who had also fallen on Saturday, Pinot was unable to respond on Sunday to the attack of Colombian Daniel Martinez, final winner. 29 seconds ahead.