Thibaut Pinot confides that he thinks “almost every descent“To the fatal fall of Gino Mäder on the Tour de Suisse, in an interview with AFP where the cyclist also develops his ambition to win the French Championships on Sunday in Cassel, in the North.
The Groupama-FDJ climber, who will then take part in his 10th Tour de France, also admits that a title of national champion could “make you thinkon the advisability of extending his career a little, which should in principle end at the end of the season.
With what ambitions do you approach the French Championships?
«My personal ambition is simple: it is to win. Afterwards, there will inevitably be a race tactic and the important thing will be to bring back the title with the team. We will have one of the strongest.»
Does the particularly hard route suit you?
«Yes, because it’s going to be a very tiring circuit. It would have been 200 terminals and only the finish bump, it was dead for me. But with 4,000 meters of elevation, we are no longer in the same type of puncher. We are more about resistance. And when you come out like me of a big Tour like the Giro, the distance you necessarily have it in your legs. This is perhaps the small advantage that I will have.»
Read alsoCycling: Thibaut Pinot officially aligned with the Tour de France
If you win, you will be forced to continue your career to ride with the champion jersey, as you suggested?
«I said that jokingly. So far I’m not too delirious. But you know it has always been a dream for me to wear this blue-white-red jersey. It’s a jersey that could still make me think. But for the moment we are not there. You have to win the race already.»
The Tour de France comes very quickly behind. Can not wait to be there?
«For my last season, it would have been a regret not to go. I want to enjoy, to take it as a party. Give the best of myself hoping to have good feelings like I had at the end of the Giro. I could have good surprises in Paris.»
How did you learn about the fatal fall of Gino Mäder in the Tour de Suisse?
«I learned it during training in La Cluzaz. It was very complicated to finish, I was stunned. Gino was a rider who, like me, liked to hang out at the back of the peloton and we often found ourselves talking. I loved him so much. I had escaped with him on the last stage of the Vuelta. We were both together. It’s dramatic.»
Does it make you think about your job?
«Since the accident, I think about it almost every time I train. Yet I was not even on the Tour de Suisse. For those who were there it must be even more difficult. I’m a runner who takes a little less risk than the others because I’m really aware of the danger. It is often said that you have to unplug the brain in the bike. I really struggle with this idea. We practice a dangerous sport.»
Do you know the descent in which he fell?
«This descent, I had done it almost 10 years ago, it was the same stage. And I remember it very well: I gave up because I was afraid of speed. It was in the period when I was criticized a lot for my caution on the descents. But people don’t realize what you’re doing on a bike at 100 km/h. We quickly forget the risks we take.»
Read alsoCycling: Laporte absent, Alaphilippe and Pinot aligned … the list of provisional departures for the French Championships in Cassel
What should be changed?
«Arrivals at the bottom of the descent, as we also saw on the Tour of the Basque Country, often pose a problem. But the descents are part of the race. Afterwards, why not put more protective nets as we do in skiing? We really have nothing to protect ourselves with. I think that’s what we can work on.»
Shouldn’t we also less glorify the risks that runners take?
«Yes, but we know it’s part of the show. It’s always selling more. When you see the summary of a stage on TV, almost a third of the images are devoted to falls. For us runners, it’s unfortunate to see that because there is something else to show in our sport.»
