Cycling: Pinot, the drama before Lombardy?

In full preparation for the Tour of Lombardy, the last major objective of his career, Thibaut Pinot was forced to abandon the Tour of Luxembourg due to illness. Does the Groupama-FDJ climber still have a chance of arriving in Lombardy in good shape, having already had to abandon the Tour du Poitou-Charentes due to a fall? Analysis.

While he lined up for the Tour of Luxembourg, whose nervous and hilly course appears ideal for accelerating his intensities in preparation for the Tour of Lombardy, Thibaut Pinot had to abandon the first stage after only a few hours of racing, ill, just like his teammate David Gaudu.

Cycling: Pinot reveals the real reason for his stop! https://t.co/RqTJgkBWsc pic.twitter.com/FYZsXnuMZa

— le10sport (@le10sport) September 21, 2023

“The goal is going to be for him to recover”

In comments reported by cyclismactu.net, Thierry Bricaudone of the sports directors of the Groupama-FDJhas explained : ” Thibaut and David abandoned the Tour de Luxembourg in quick succession. They both arrived from Slovakia and wanted to do the two events together to give themselves the best possible end to the season. Thibaut did 3 hours of cycling yesterday, he felt pretty good but this morning he immediately warned us that things weren’t going well. He complained of digestive problems. We knew the day wasn’t going to be easy but we hoped it could pass. Unfortunately he had no choice but to give up. We all know that the end of Thibaut’s career is near. The goal will be for him to recover, the races in Italy are coming up very quickly. David, for his part, is having a difficult month of August. He suffered a covid episode, food poisoning and a fall in training. He hung on last week in Slovakia to return to competition. On the bike, you can’t hide. It’s an unforgiving sport. It’s a bad day for the team. We will console ourselves with Valentin’s place in the first group and plan around him for the next stages ».

The opportunity to find freshness before Lombardy

Pour Pinot, who had already had to abandon the Tour du Poitou-Charentes at the end of August due to a fall, will such a stop be prohibitive in view of the Tour of Lombardy? Beyond the speech of the sports director who necessarily turns to an emergency solution to maintain correct preparation, Pinot has he lost his chances of doing well in the Tour of Lombardy? It is clear that with his premature abandonment in Luxembourg, which followed his fall in Poitou-Charentes, Pinot loses kilometers in competition. However, this can also allow him to regain his juice after a very long season, with two great Tours and to arrive in Lombardy with freshness. Moreover, Pinot has enough Italian semi-classics before the Tour of Lombardy to compensate for his retirement at the Tour of Luxembourg. Finally, this retirement could take him a little away from the radar screens and allow him to approach his last race a little more discreetly, without too much pressure, which would create an ideal context for him to perform.