After the Tour de France’s stage 8, this Saturday, Thibaut Pinot is no longer in contention for the general classification. Because of a severe back pain due to his crash on day 1, the Groupama-FDJ’ leader was dropped from the yellow jersey group very far from the finish in the Pyrenees’ first stage. Escorted to the line by his teammates, he will try to recover in the next few days before moving on to other goals. Also injured since his crash in Nice, William Bonnet was forced to leave the race.
“It had been hell since Saturday”, Thibaut Pinot
In the aftermath of a crazy day, during which the Groupama-FDJ team proved to be admirable, the first real mountain stage of the Tour de France was set to deliver its verdict on Saturday in Loudenvielle after the tough Col de Menté, Port de Balès and Col de Peyresourde. In the end of the day, the verdict proved to be a terrible one for Thibaut Pinot. After a quite calm first half of the stage, during which a thirteen-man breakaway was allowed to battle for the stage victory, things took an unpleasant turn in the Port of Balès. Although the pace was not crazy yet in the pack, Thibaut Pinot got dropped. His teammates did stay with him to give him comfort, but the general classification’s goal was no more in reach. “I was still hoping after yesterday’s stage and the Orcières-Merlette’s one, as I had seen some encouraging signs,” Thibaut said. “But other than that, it had been hell since Saturday. My back hurts so much that I don’t have strength to push the pedals”.
The Frenchman quickly understood that the dice were cast and therefore simply tried to complete the stage together with his mates. “This is unfortunately the Tour’s first stage consequences, and the damage is still there”, reacted Marc Madiot. “Recovery has not proven to be enough in order to have an interesting role. We managed to keep a low profile on the flat stages, but you can’t do that in the mountains. We felt some difficulties as from the day after the crash, but we managed to get through the second stage and we had the feeling that things were going a little better. We still understood that we were not at the Dauphiné level but we hoped that the situation would settle over time. It did not, and today is obviously a hard day”. After a faultless start to the Tour, without having lost time in the first seven stages, Thibaut Pinot eventually cracked because of his crash with three kilometers to go on the first stage. “We know that to have a good Tour, it is better not to crash”, added Marc Madiot. “But we also know that crashes are part of the job. It happened on us, that’s how it is”.
“Crying is useless”, Marc Madiot
While the Tour de France’s major goal, namely the general classification, is no longer topical for the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, the Tour itself still has a lot to offer. Including to Thibaut Pinot. “It’s a difficult day and I want to apologize to my team, my teammates and those who support me for this failure, but I will not leave the Tour, and it did not even cross my mind”, he said. “The Tour continues and we will try to fight back. The team is very strong and I hope the guys can go for a stage victory. They deserve it”. “It was a complicated day for Thibaut, but the Tour is far from over,” said Matthieu Ladagnous. “We will remotivate ourselves. There are stages to go for, and it’s still the Tour! We will try to put all that in order and help Thibaut to go for stage victories, or even do it with others”. Marc Madiot eventually had the final word: “Crying is useless. We are going to pull ourselves together and rebuild our morale to get going again. We will try to recover from tomorrow on and take advantage of the day off before setting out new goals that may interest us, such as stage victories or even the polka dot jersey, we will see…”.
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