Thibaut Pinot is ready to use his rage to surge back into contention on the Tour de France as the race heads to his favorite terrain — the mountains.
The Frenchman was the best placed of the pre-race favorites on Monday when he was caught at the wrong end of a peloton split in crosswinds.
He lost 1 minute, 40 seconds to slip down to 11th overall, more than two-and-a-half minutes behind leader Julian Alaphilippe.
Photo: AFP
Defending champion Geraint Thomas is in the driving seat in second place, just 1:12 behind Frenchman Alaphilippe and 1:21 ahead of Pinot.
During Tuesday’s rest day, Groupama-FDJ’s Pinot was still fuming at the positioning error that ruined his until-then perfect opening week, but he and his team vowed to bounce back.
“I feel frustration, I feel anger, I feel rage,” 29-year-old Pinot, third overall in 2014, told reporters, his face a mask of cold determination.
Making up for lost time on Thomas and his Ineos teammate Egan Bernal, who is only four seconds behind the Welshman, is a tough ask, especially with an individual time trial tomorrow that should favor the defending champion.
“Do not write our obituary,” Groupama-FDJ manager Marc Madiot said. “You’re going to see some outstanding Thibaut Pinot. His victory at the Giro di Lombardia [one of five Monument classics in October last year] showed that he is a champion. His rage the other night shows that he can be a great champion.”
Madiot described the fiasco on Monday as “a blow to the liver,” saying his protege was “1-0 down at halftime in a Champions League game.”
“We’re only midway through the race and, good for us, the hardest part is yet to come,” he said.
After yesterday’s flat 11th stage, the Tour hits the Pyrenees, with a couple of tough climbs featuring in today’s 12th stage and a mountain-top finish at the Col du Tourmalet on Saturday.
“I know that I have the legs. I can’t wait for Saturday, I have so much rage in me. The finish at top of the Tourmalet is going to hurt, the legs will do the talking,” Pinot said.
“We’re going to be aggressive, we have a team for that in the mountains,” he added, citing teammates Sebastien Reichenbach, David Gaudu and Rudy Molard.
If the disappointment of Monday is not behind him yet, Pinot plans to use it for motivation.
“I’ve had some tough times in my career and I’ve always bounced back,” he said. “I know that on the morning of the time trial on Friday and on Saturday before the Tourmalet stage, I will think of all this.”
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