Tour de France: Pinot 'not on a great day' during first Alpine stage
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was dubbed the 'Patron of the Pyrenees' after his performances last weekend at the Tour de France, but his dominance did not continue into the Alps, with the Frenchman admitting he was "not on a great day" during Thursday's stage 18.
Pinot was victorious atop the Col du Tourmalet last Saturday and backed it up the following day by putting more time into his rivals at Prat d'Albis. The gains he made effectively cancelled out the losses he'd suffered in the crosswinds at the start of the week, and suddenly he was right back in the thick of the battle for the overall title.
The sense of ascendancy, however, was curbed as the Tour hit the Alps for a trio of high-mountain, high-altitude stages that will decide the race before the procession into Paris. Pinot did not follow when Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) attacked from the yellow jersey group on the Col du Galibier, and the Colombian went on to gain 32 seconds, leapfrogging him on his way to second overall.
However, when Bernal's teammate Geraint Thomas, previously second overall, attacked soon after, Pinot did set about nullifying the 2018 champion. Race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was dropped as a result but clawed his way back on the descent, leaving Pinot still 1:50 adrift of the maillot jaune.
"It's an average assessment. I was not on a great day. Those days, you just have to get through them, and that's what I did," Pinot told reporters in Valloire.
"The objective was to follow the top guys. I didn't succeed in following Egan Bernal, who was very strong today. Thomas also made a big attack, but I was able to close that down before the summit."
Madiot
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