Last turns of the wheel for Pinot, fury in the bend
September is when the memories of spring already seem distant, already wisely stored in an archive shelf. However, this is where the most flattering French result lies. Of the three major Tours this season, the best record is to the credit of Thibaut Pinot, at the Giro. Fifth in the final overall (5’43” behind Primoz Roglic), flirting twice with stage victory, best climber jersey in Rome, the Franc-Comtois still had the desire for his 14th professional year. “I was able to enjoy my Giro so much compared to the other times, or the other great Tours, where I had real pressure for results and ultimately, it didn’t work too much,” explained Pinot in his last days of racing in Italy.
A Tour of Italy concluded with a distinctive jersey, “a mini-reward, because it’s an attacker’s jersey, where you have to fight and I’ve been fighting for it since the second day,” said the rider of Groupama-FDJ at the time.
It was also the only one brought back by a French rider this season in the three Grand Tours. This result, carried by a rider who will end his career in less than two weeks at the Tour of Lombardy, also reveals all the difficulties of French cycling in three-week events.
In this assessment, we could not omit a situation from the last Tour de France that we do not find in the different classifications: the thousands of fans in the Pinot corner opening in front of the Frenchman in the lead, staggering seconds of cycling madness in the acres of Petit Ballon.
Thibault Pinot at the turn in his name in the Petit Ballon. (E. Garnier/The Team)
Lafay at the ridge, Paret-Painter on purpose
Because the French record on the 2023 Grand Tours is sparse. The victory of Victor Lafay (Cofidis), full of mischief and panache during the 2nd stage of the Tour de France in San Sebastian, was followed by a tricolor shortage on the various official podiums in July. And the group shooting of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), 9th and 10th overall, poorly masks a French air gap. Certainly, Mathieu Burgaudeau revealed himself during the three weeks with breakaways, but from an accounting point of view, that is not worth a victory. The overall results are basically equivalent to the previous two years.
The Tour of Italy remains the favorite playground of the Tricolores: for four years, at least one distinctive jersey has gone to a Frenchman (Pinot best climber this year, Geoffrey Bouchard in 2021; Arnaud Démare best sprinter in 2020 and 2022). Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) wore the pink jersey for two days in May, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroën) won a stage and continued to fight at the front.
Lenny Martinez and Romain Grégoire: the Vuelta in full swing
On the Vuelta, which concluded on Sunday, the brightening came from Geoffrey Soupe. Well established in the role of faithful lieutenant since his professional debut, the TotalEnergies team rider surprised everyone during the 7th stage by dominating the final sprint in the streets of Oliva and thus obtained the greatest victory of his career at the age of 35.
But the Blues’ counter stopped there. To get a little fired up and think about the future, there is the very encouraging Tour of Spain carried out by the young riders of Groupama-FDJ, Lenny Martinez and Romain Grégoire, both only twenty years old, who were making their first great Tour of their career.
For young Martinez, the great adventure began on the evening of the 6th stage. By taking second place at the top of the Javalambre observatory behind the American Sepp Kuss – the future winner of the Vuelta – the pocket climber of the Groupama-FDJ team became the youngest leader in the history of the Spanish test. The young Martinez wore his leader’s tunic for two days, before becoming ill and dropping back in the general ranking (24th in the end).
Among the satisfactions, we must add the performance of Romain Grégoire. Just like his teammate Martinez, he came to learn. The two rookies also said that they were already asking for more. Grégoire was not far from the feat. Starting in a long breakaway during the 11th stage, the Bisontin rider failed by a whisker at the top of the Laguna Negra, beaten only by the Spaniard Jesus Herrada.
For his first experience on a Grand Tour, Grégoire (42nd in Madrid) even confided that he finished this Vuelta much better than he imagined. It is now a matter of reconnecting the loose thread with the successes in the three-week events.
