33-year-old Thibaut Pinot has decided to retire at the end of the season.
More at the level since 2019 and its terrible abandonment on the Tour de France while he seemed to be the best climber of this Grande Boucle, Thibaut Pinot announced his retirement from professional runner Thursday January 12 at the end of the season, ending a long way of the cross for several years and in particular after his fall in Paris Nice. Since that moment and the confinement linked to the Covid, the Frenchman has understood that he is no longer really himself. “The triggering point was my injury in 2021 (following his fall in Nice on the 2020 Tour). There, I realized that it was difficult, that I was getting old and several times I thought about quitting. If I go back a bit, I started thinking during confinement too. It was the first time I felt like I was myself. It was, in quotation marks, an imposed vacation, without stress, without pressure, without running everywhere. From that moment, I asked myself a lot of questions” he explained to the team. “Almost immediately after confinement, there was my injury, it’s as if I got a lot of answers to the questions I had asked myself. The year 2022 was important, I had a contract which ended at the end of 2023, whatever happens, for me it was obvious to finish it. But before, I wanted to have the answer to the question. When I will have competed in the Giro and I will finish in Lombardy “, it will be. Winning one more stage or race won’t change anything, neither in my life nor in my career. There won’t be any reason to continue.”
Asked about RMC on Thursday January 12 also, Marc Madiot, its sporting director, did not hide his emotion. “We knew we were closer to the end than the beginning for some time. So I’m not surprised. In top sport when you decide to stop, it’s because hour. There’s no story of wear points. It’s something that you have in you. I was a cyclist, and one day I knew that the end word was there. It’s not a story of age, track record or environment, it’s your internal clock that tells you it’s time.”
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Biography Thibaut Pinot. Thibaut Pinot was born on May 29, 1990 in Lure, in the department of Haute-Saône. After having started cycling at the age of 8, pushed by his big brother Julien who also practices cycling, the teenager then took his first license in the AC Bisontine club. After convincing results, he joined CC Etupes, a National Division 1 club in 2009. The young climber won the Tour de la Vallée d’Aoste with the France Espoir team, becoming the youngest winner of the event. The French Games team made him sign his first professional contract in 2010. Thibaut Pinot won his first two victories during the Tour de l’Ain 2011 but also his first stage race, the Lombard Week.
In 2012, Thibaut Pinot successfully discovered the Tour de France, as he won the Porrentruy stage and became the youngest post-war rider to finish in the top 10 overall. After a failed edition of the Tour de France 2013, Pinot recovered to take 7th place in the Vuelta. In 2014, Pinot climbed on the podium of the Tour de France (3rd), which remains to this day his best performance in the event, and won the classification of the best young rider. During the 2015 Tour de France, the young rider quickly finds himself behind in the general classification but finds the necessary resources to win the Alpe d’Huez stage. Proof of his progress in time, he became French time trial champion in 2016. Marked by another failure on the Great Loop, Pinot turned to the Giro in 2017, which he finished just off the podium. Thibaut Pinot presents himself again in 2018 on the Italian race. Third two days from the finish, he broke down physically, victim of pneumonia, and abandoned in stride when a podium reached out to him. At the end of the season, the climber successfully lined up for the Vuelta, winning two stages and finishing the race in sixth place. But above all, on October 13, 2018, Thibaut Pinot achieved one of the greatest successes of his career by winning the Tour of Lombardy, winning Vincenzo Nibali on the pedal. A success that will serve as a trigger for the French rider for the 2019 season, where he will shine on the Tour de France, before giving up on injury (see below).
Faithful to his Groupama-FDJ training since his transition to pro, Thibaut Pinot would have the second highest salary in the French peloton, behind Julian Alaphilippe (2.3 million euros per year according to figures published by the newspaper L’Equipe on May 19, 2020). The climber’s income is estimated at around 2 million euros per yeareven if neither the rider nor his team communicated on this subject during the extension of his contract in June 2020.
Thibaut Pinot has got into the habit of remaining discreet about his private life and in particular about his romantic relationships. However, we know that the French rider is currently in a relationship with Charlotte Patatcrowned Miss-Champagne-Ardennes in 2016. A few years ago, the cyclist had an idyll with another beauty queen, Andréa Vannier, Miss Franche-Comté 2011. At his side, Thibaut Pinot can also count on the support of his brother Julianformer cyclist and now trainer with the Groupama-FDJ team, his sister Marine and his parents Marie-Jeanne and Régis, who regularly come to support him on the road to the Tour de France. The latter is mayor of the town of Mélisey, where Thibaut Pinot grew up and still lives.
Thibaut Pinot’s first feat of arms in the Tour de France dates back to his first participation in 2012, when at the cost of a long breakaway, he won the Porrentruy stage. The climber then suffered several disappointments on the routes of the Grande Boucle, notably in 2013, 2016 and 2017, being forced to retire each time. In 2014, he ranked 3rd overall and brought home the white jersey for the best young rider. A disappointing outburst on the 2015 edition, he finished this Tour finely in style by winning the penultimate stage at the top of Alpe d’Huez, notably resisting the return of Nairo Quintana. Absent in 2018, the Franc-Comtois returned to the Grande Boucle through the front door during the 2019 edition by playing the leading roles and winning a stage victory at the top of the Tourmalet. Performances that allowed him to dream of the final victory before crossing the Alps… Overtaken by bad luck, he will once again have to dismount, in tears, at the start of the 19th stage, victim of an injury at the thigh. “The biggest disappointment of my career,” he admitted a few days later.
In 2022, Thibaut Pinot has long sought stage victory while supporting his leader David Gaudu for the general classification. If his teammate finished 4th in the Tour de France, the climber did not win a stage despite a good comeback during the 9th stage over Bob Jungels, winner of the day.
Here are Thibaut Pinot’s main victories and places of honor since his arrival in professional cycling in 2010:
- 2011: 5th stage and general classification of the Tour d’Alsace; 1st stage and general classification of the Lombardy Week;
- 2012: 8th stage of the Tour de France ; 5th stage of the Tour de l’Ain
- 2013: 7th overall in the Tour of Spain
- 2014 : 3rd overall in the Tour de France and best young rider
- 2015: 5th stage of the Tour de Romandie; 5th stage of the Tour of Switzerland; 20th stage of the Tour de France ; 1st stage and general classification of the Tour du Gévaudan
- 2016: French time trial champion ; 2nd and 3rd stages, and winner of the general classification of the Critérium international;
- 2017: General classification of the Tour de l’Ain; 4th overall in the Giro d’Italia
- 2018: General classification of the Tour of the Alps; 15th and 19th stages of the Tour of Spain; Milan-Turin; Tour of Lombardy
- 2019: 3rd stage and general classification of the Tour du Haut-Var; 3rd stage and general classification of the Tour de l’Ain; 14th stage of the Tour de France
- 2020: 5th overall at Paris-Nice
- 2022: 8th in Tirreno-Adriatico, 5th stage in the Tour des Alpes, 7th stage in the Tour de Suisse, 15th overall in the Tour de France.