Thibaut Pinot accused of "daft" riding by Adam Blythe on stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia

Arguably Thibaut Pinot was clearly the strongest rider in the breakaway on stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia. The reason he wasn't the winner though was that he was by no means the smartest according to Adam Blythe.

"It is almost like he forgot to be a bike racer," Blythe explained in the immediate aftermath of the stage on Eurosport's coverage. "He rode all the way up that climb on the front, kept attacking, kept being brought back, kept attacking. If you do that three or four times, you'd be like 'I'm not doing this anymore, I'm just going to save myself because they just keep catching me'. So for me, it was quite daft of him really, I think that is the politest way to put it."

Repeated attacks by the Groupama - FDJ rider were unable to snap the elastic as Jefferson Alexander Cepeda and Einer Rubio kept coming back to him. In the end it was Rubio who emerged the winner and although this is Pinot's final year in the World Tour peloton, Blythe believes he still has a lot to learn about the tactics of bike racing.

"It was just like he unattached his brain. I think maybe a little bit of arrogance came over him thinking 'I'm a lot better than you guys, I'm going to keep doing this' because why else would you keep riding the whole way up that climb on the front?" Blythe questions.