(Paris) The Frenchman of the Groupama-FDJ team Thibaut Pinot will end his professional career at the end of the season, the 32-year-old cyclist announced Thursday in an interview with The Team.
“When I run, we’ll know it’s the last time, before I go and bury myself in my hole,” explains the climber, third in the 2014 Tour de France, with a smile.
In this interview, he specifies that he will retire in October after the Tour of Lombardy, an event he won in 2018.
Before this final race, he will compete in the Giro in May and hopes to participate in his last Tour de France, in July.
For my last year, I want to go there, it would piss me off to miss it. The Tour was tough, but it was also the one that gave me the greatest emotions […]. For my last year to be beautiful, I have to be there. Just for everyone who supported me.
Thibaut Pinot
Pinot explains that “the triggering point” for this decision to stop “was (m) an 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.
Professional since 2010, the native of Lure, in Haute-Saône revealed himself during the Tour de France 2012, winning a solo stage, and finishing 10e of this edition.
Two years later, he confirmed by taking third place in the Tour, his best result so far in nine participations.
Pinot also took the 4e place in the Giro in 2017, winning a stage, and the 6e Place de la Vuelta in 2018, winning two stages.
But the Frenchman’s career has also often been marred by injuries and retirements like those in the Tour de France (2017, 2019).