"For my last season, I’d have regretted not being able to go" - Thibaut Pinot looks forward to final Tour de France and national championships battle

Thibaut Pinot is most likely on the verge of ending his career but he's still got a few months left in the peloton where he can leave his mark. He hopes to do that in the upcoming national championships and his final Tour de France.

Pinot had said earlier in the year that he would only consider not retiring if he was to win the national championships and put on the French colours. “I was joking when I said that. Even so, it could make me think. But in any case we’re not there, first you have to win," Pinot pointed out to AFP.

However the chance is now quite real. The Frenchman put on a great display of power at the Giro d'Italia, winning the KOM classification, as well as riding to fifth in the overall classification. As he is preparing for the Tour de France he is keen on having good form at this point. The route is one of the hardest in the whole nationals and whilst it is not a course for the climbers, the total accumulate will add up and may give him an edge towards the end.

The goal is clear: "To win. That said, there will be a race strategy for our team, and the important thing is for the squad to bring the title home. We’ll be one of the strongest sides... If it had been just 200 kilometers and then a final climb, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But when it’s got 4,000 metres of vertical climbing, it’s made for a different kind of puncheur. It’s more about resistance. And when you come out of a Grand Tour like me, having just done the Giro, you always have that sort of distance in your legs. That’s maybe the small advantage I’ll have.”

He has been confirmed to ride the Tour afterwards, amidst a chaotic situation with Groupama - FDJ, in which Arnaud Démare was removed from the lineup last minute and will leave the team on bad terms, whilst David Gaudu publicly expressed doubts over the participation of both Démare and Pinot in the past.

“For my last season, I’d have regretted not being able to go. I want to enjoy it, and look on it as a party, but at the same time, give the best of myself and hope to have legs as good as I had at the end of the Giro," he concludes. "I could have some nice surprises before we reach Paris."