A couple of weeks ago, I rode up Prat d’Albis, the Pyrenean climb just outside Foix where Simon Yates took the second of his two wins in last year’s Tour de France.
As I was getting my breath back at the top, a couple of local riders drew up alongside me and we started to chat, initially about how beautiful this climb is and how unfortunate it had been that the elements had prevented the rest of the cycling world realising this last year, and then about Thibaut Pinot, who distanced all of the other yellow jersey contenders as he emerged from the mist to finish second behind Yates.
“He looked like he was going to win the Tour, he was so strong in the Pyrenees. But then he got injured and his chance went. We’ll never know whether he could have won the Tour, and I’m not sure that he will get another chance as good as that,” one of the Frenchman said, his friend nodding his agreement.
I’ll admit that, assuming the Tour does take place towards the end of this summer, I’d love to see Pinot win it. It would be a great story in many different ways, above all because it would end the home nation’s 35-year victory drought. Essentially, though, I’d like to see Pinot win it because I love watching him race. When he’s in form, the Frenchman is aggressive, punchy, opportunistic, gifted with that same dynamic spirit that stands out so brightly in Julian Alaphilippe. There’s real joy in the way that they race, painful for them no doubt, but blissful for fans who relish a show of panache, to see riders taking a risk rather than being conservative.
Pinot demonstrated those qualities when winning on the Tourmalet last July, in dropping his GC rivals on Prat d’Albis the next day and also, earlier in the race, with his daring raid with Julian Alaphilippe over the lumps and bumps into Saint Étienne. Other instances stick in my mind: his wonderfully judged victory on the Rettenbachferner in the 2015 Tour of Switzerland, a dazzling burst of daring and speed to win the final stage of the Tour of Alps in 2017, and his solo success at the Tour of Lombardy a year later, France’s first win in “the race of the falling leaves” for more than two decades.
In amongst the wins – more than 30 in total, a good haul for a climber – Pinot has been dogged by ill-fortune, generally due to the frailties of his body than to crashes. He’s finished just five of the dozen Grand Tours he’s started, his abandons at the 2018 Giro and 2019 the most striking and heart-rending because a podium finish looked all but certain in both cases. Seeing him respond to these setbacks and come back stronger has provided another reason to cherish Pinot.
In March, the Groupama-FDJ leader was profiled in L’Équipe magazine, and the issue of his mental fortitude featured prominently. Reflecting on the thigh problem that forced him to quit the 2019 Tour, former FDJ team doctor Gérard Guillaume said he’d discussed the injury with colleagues and none of them had ever come across a cyclist being afflicted by it. “For me, the problem is completely psychological, just like his repeated illnesses. The pressure is simply too great. That’s why we get this recurring theme with him: as soon as he wins, he then loses,” surmised Guillaume.
This analysis fits well with the suggestion, endorsed on occasions by the rider himself, that Pinot is much happier at home in the Vosges with his girlfriend, family and menagerie of animals. Yet, as France awaits the much hoped for successor to 1985 Tour winner Bernard Hinault, there is good reason to believe that Pinot could be that man, that he’s not a Tim Henman who raises expectations only to disappoint at the vital moment, but is an Andy Murray, who will rise above doubts about injury and form to prevail.
I base this partly on Pinot’s career, the fact that he’s always taken two steps forward and then one back, advancing all the while. On a 2020 Tour route that appears ready-made for him, an advance after last year’s setback would surely see him maintain his yellow jersey challenge right to the final time trial to La Planche des Belles Filles, which takes place on his home roads and actually passes through his village of Mélisey.
There are, in addition, other strong arguments in support of Pinot’s challenge, not least 2019 Tour champion Egan Bernal’s admission that he was expecting the Frenchman to win the Tour until injury intervened. Pinot had showed he had the beating of his rivals, coming back from what could have been a crucial loss of time in the wind that blew across the race on the road into Albi to dominate in the Pyrenees. He can also rely on the support of a team that’s not only fully committed to his yellow jersey challenge, but very capable of supporting it, with Stefan Küng and David Gaudu the stand-outs who are the envy of every rival squad.
Just as importantly, Pinot believes that he can win the Tour and is determined to achieve that goal. He has, he says, fallen in love with the race. Having spent two seasons targeting the Giro because he preferred its feel and style of racing, he’s realised that he can race in much the same way at the Tour and contend for the yellow jersey.
I won’t say that Thibaut Pinot will win the Tour de France, but he can. I hope he does.