Tour de France: Pinot goes from despair to elation with 'revenge' on the Tourmalet
21 July 2019 01:19
From the depths of despair to the height of elation, Groupama-FDJ's Thibaut Pinot has known it all this week. "I was down and out," he said of last Monday, when crosswinds caught hold of his dream start to the Tour de France and shattered it to pieces. "I took a blow like I've rarely taken before." If Pinot was able to open up about the emotions of stage 10, it was because they had just been purged. Standing on the top step of the podium at the top of the Col du Tourmalet on Saturday as the winner of stage 14, he was a world away from his former pain. "Spectacular, extraordinary, magical," was how he put it. ADVERTISEMENT Pinot, by his own admission, has not always been the best at dealing with adversity, especially on the roads of France in July. Yet, he has channelled his disappointment perfectly in the past few days. In Friday's individual time trial, the first GC fixture since Monday, he produced a strong ride to reintroduce himself to the fight for the podium. On Saturday, he won atop the Tourmalet, taking his third career Tour de France stage victory on one of the race's most iconic mountains. "I've been fired up since Monday. For me, it was an injustice to have lost that time – we didn't deserve that. There was a strong desire for revenge," he said. Podium in Paris
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