Thibaut Pinot
Thibaut Pinot is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional from 2010 to 2023, spending his entire career with. Once considered one of the most promising talents in French cycling, he finished third overall in the 2014 Tour de France and first in the young rider classification. He has won stages in all three Grand Tours, with 3 in the Tour de France, 1 in the Giro d'Italia and 2 in the Vuelta a España. Pinot has taken more than thirty professional victories, including the Giro di Lombardia in 2018, and he won the mountains classification at the 2023 Giro d'Italia.
Career
2010
-born Pinot turned professional in 2010 with the team, having signed an initial two-year contract with the team. In his first season, he won the mountains classification at the Tour de Romandie and Paris–Corrèze, and recorded fifth-place finishes at the Tour de l'Ain, and the Tour du Finistère.2011
At the 2011 Tour of Turkey, Pinot was part of a ten-rider breakaway on the fifth stage that finished twelve minutes clear of the peloton, and ultimately finished the race in third overall. He then finished second to Sylvain Georges in his next start, at the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, winning the mountains and young rider classifications. He finished second to Joaquim Rodríguez on the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné in June, before winning the Tour Alsace on the final stage in July with a stage victory atop the Col du Ballon d'Alsace. He then won two stages at the Tour de l'Ain in August, including the final stage summit finish at the Col du Grand Colombier; he also held the overall lead for a day after his first stage win. At the end of the month, he soloed to an opening stage victory at the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, where he then held on to the overall lead of the race until its conclusion three days later.2012
Pinot, aged 22 was the youngest rider in the Tour de France. He took a prestigious victory on the eighth stage from Belfort to Porrentruy, which comprised seven categorized climbs including the Category 1 Col de la Croix, where he passed Fredrik Kessiakoff shortly before the summit, with remaining. He then negotiated the descent and the flat portion of road, holding on to a lead of 26 seconds over the chasing group – which included some of the Tour's general classification contenders – despite a headwind and while being frantically encouraged by his team manager, Marc Madiot. Despite being the youngest rider at the Tour, he managed to finish 10th overall in the final general classification. At 22 years and 54 days, he became the youngest rider to finish in the top 10 since Raymond Impanis in 1947. Following the Tour de France, Pinot took a stage victory on the final day of the Tour de l'Ain.2013
Having started out the season with finishes of 8th overall at the Volta a Catalunya and 4th overall at Tour de Suisse, there were high hopes for Pinot in July at the centenary edition of the Tour de France. However, when the race hit the mountains, Pinot was struggling and was over half an hour down in the general classification after Stage 9. In the second week of the race, Pinot had problems with a sore throat and also admitted he was struggling on the descents, having a fear of speed. He abandoned the race prior to stage 16. Having finished sixth at the Tour de l'Ain, Pinot looked to redeem himself in the Vuelta a España, and got better throughout the race, moving into the top ten overall ahead of the first rest day. On the penultimate stage to the Alto de l'Angliru, Pinot climbed up to 7th place overall, which was also his finishing position in Madrid.2014
In the spring, Pinot took top-ten overall finishes at the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie, and the Bayern Rundfahrt. At the Tour de France, Pinot won the white jersey for being the best young rider and finished in third place in the final general classification, behind Vincenzo Nibali and Jean-Christophe Péraud. He and Péraud became the first Frenchmen to finish in the top three overall in the Tour de France since Richard Virenque finished as the runner-up overall in 1997. It was the first time in 30 years that two Frenchmen finished in the top three overall in the Tour de France – Laurent Fignon and Bernard Hinault finished in the top two overall in 1984. He then rode the Vuelta a España, but withdrew midway through the race. He finished the season with a fourth-place finish at both the Tour du Doubs, and the Tour du Gévaudan Languedoc-Roussillon, winning the young rider classification at the latter.2015
In March, he finished fourth overall at Tirreno–Adriatico, and then finished second to Jean-Christophe Péraud at Critérium International. Pinot had his first victory of the season at the Tour de Romandie. He won the queen stage of the race with seven seconds of an advantage over his nearest pursuer, Ilnur Zakarin of. He finished fourth in the general classification and won the white jersey as the young rider classification winner. In June, as he was preparing for the Tour de France, he participated in the Tour de Suisse and won the queen stage, a long and difficult event featuring a mountaintop finish atop the Rettenbach glacier. He held the race lead by 34 seconds going into the final stage, a individual time trial that started and finished in Bern. However, he lost at least a minute to his closest challengers Geraint Thomas and Simon Špilak, and also fell behind Tom Dumoulin to finish in fourth place overall.At the Tour de France, Pinot lost considerable time in the first week due to crashes and mechanical issues, yet he won Stage 20 – which finished at Alpe d'Huez – in solo fashion and finished 16th in the final general classification. He competed in the warm-up event for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the International Road Cycling Challenge in Rio de Janeiro, where he finished in sixth position. In September, Pinot won the Tour du Gévaudan Languedoc-Roussillon ; he won the opening stage in a two-up sprint against Thomas Voeckler on the uphill finish at the Col de Pierre Plate, and then finished second to Alexis Vuillermoz on the final stage in Mende. He finished his season competing in a pair of Italian races – he finished fourth in Milano–Torino, before recording his first Monument classic podium finish with third place in Il Lombardia, a result that he was "proud" with.
2016
During the first half of the 2016 season, Pinot recorded a run of seven consecutive race starts where he finished in the top-five placings. He finished second to Dries Devenyns in a sprint à deux at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, and then finished third overall at the Étoile de Bessèges after a second-place finish on the final individual time trial stage. He finished fourth overall at the Volta ao Algarve and then fifth overall at Tirreno–Adriatico. At Critérium International, Pinot won a individual time trial around Porto-Vecchio to take the race lead, before winning the final stage the following day, a summit finish on the. After a fourth-place overall finish at the Tour of the Basque Country, Pinot won the third stage – a individual time trial in Sion – at the Tour de Romandie; he moved up to second overall behind Nairo Quintana, staying there for the remainder of the race. He out-sprinted Romain Bardet to win a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné at the ski resort of Méribel, and he also won the French National Time Trial Championships, ahead of the Tour de France. Following this success, he signed a two-year contract extension with.At the Tour de France however, Pinot lost a little over three minutes to other general classification contenders on stage 7 to Lac de Payolle. Pinot simply said it was his bad legs, as he was seen struggling on the final climb of the Col d'Aspin. On the following stage, Pinot rebounded and went into the breakaway; he and Rafał Majka battled it out for points for the mountains jersey, with Majka taking the lead in the competition by one point, and he lost 16 minutes to stage winner Chris Froome. On stage 9 he was yet again in the breakaway with Majka, but Pinot managed to edge out Majka, to wear the polka dot jersey from stage 10. However, Pinot performed badly in the polka-dot jersey on stage 12 and withdrew from the race ahead of stage 13. On 1 September, Pinot announced his season's end on Twitter, citing "persistent fatigue due to a virus" and "in order to prepare best for the next season" as the reasons for his decision to end his season prematurely.
2017
The first win of Pinot's 2017 campaign came at the Vuelta a Andalucía, as he rode past Alberto Contador in the final hundred metres of the second stage. Pinot finished the race in third position overall, and went on to ride Strade Bianche for the first time, in which he finished ninth. Pinot then finished third overall at the Tirreno–Adriatico a week later, losing a place on the final stage to Rohan Dennis. As Pinot was targeting the centenary edition of the Giro d'Italia, his last preparation race was the Tour of the Alps. He recorded top-five stage finishes on each of the five stages, including a stage win on the final stage to Trento, as he finished second overall behind Geraint Thomas. At the Giro d'Italia, Pinot recorded a fourth-place finish at Mount Etna on stage four and a second-place finish at Blockhaus on stage nine, which saw him rise to second in the general classification behind Nairo Quintana. After dropping to fourth overall on the following stage, Pinot remained in third or fourth overall for the remainder of the race. He won the penultimate stage to Asiago, winning a sprint from a small group of riders, and went into the final stage – a individual time trial into Milan from the Monza Circuit – with a ten-second margin over Tom Dumoulin for the final podium place. Dumoulin overhauled Pinot, Vincenzo Nibali and Quintana for the race victory, with Pinot missing out on the podium in fourth place.Having been unable to defend his title at the French National Time Trial Championships, Pinot rode the Tour de France but finished no higher than ninth on a stage, and abandoned the race during stage 17 on the Col de la Croix de Fer. In August, Pinot won the Tour de l'Ain ahead of his teammate David Gaudu; Gaudu won the third stage in Oyonnax ahead of Pinot with Pinot moving into the race lead, and then cemented his race victory with a further second-place stage finish to Alexandre Geniez on the final stage in Culoz. He finished the season off by riding the Italian autumn classics; he finished in second place at Tre Valli Varesine, fifth place at Il Lombardia, and also finished inside the top-ten placings at the Giro dell'Emilia and Milano–Torino.