Is the Tour de France 2020 for Pinot?

He had been seen crying in tears at the end of July on the Tignes road. We found him motivated as ever. In full media tour, three months after his surrender during a Tour de France that seemed within reach, Thibaut Pinot made Tuesday a passage at the Super Moscato Show, on RMC. Without scrolling to say "the wound in the head, hard to treat", the French rider of the Groupama-FDJ has preferred to talk about the future with optimism, and already plan on the next Great Loop. "We're going to leave again," he assured, "that will be my primary goal." This is good, since the route of the 2020 edition, unveiled on Tuesday with great fanfare, seems tailor-made for the Franc-Comtois.

>> Podcasts of the Super Moscato Show

From the mountain for three weeks

This is not a scoop: Thibaut Pinot is a climber, a true real, who finds happiness only when the road rises. However, the Tour de France 2020 will give pride of place to the mountain, crossing the five great massifs, with a total of 29 climbs ranked 2nd, 1st, or out-of-category. And if the great classics – Ventoux, Tourmalet, Galibier, Alpe d'Huez – are not on the program, the organizers have selected other enticing (or scary) mounted, like the newcomer, the collar of the Loze. Above all, it will not be necessary to wait to gain height. From the 2nd stage (Nice-Nice), the peloton will face the col de Colmiane, then the neck of Turini. And from the 4th stage, the public will be entitled to an arrival at the summit of the climb of Orcieres-Merlette.

"We can imagine a lot of scenarios, I think it's one of the most difficult courses of the last years, with new climbs, and the mountain at the 2nd stage," says Julian Alaphilippe. noticed a lot of steps promised to sprinters, it's a special course. " Which obviously pleases Pinot. "We break a little this usual routine on the Tour, where sometimes it was necessary to wait more than a week before having a mountain stage," he commented on Tuesday, where we rarely have two sprints in a row It's great for the show and the runners, we're not going to find the weather long, there's mountain every two days, what does it change? departure, because there will already be an arrival at the summit on the 4th day. The big mountain stages seem beautiful, there is also a lot of medium mountain, a terrain that always creates the race. So at first glance, it's a Tour that I like and fits me. "As it might be suitable for Egan Bernal, by the way …

No team time, or long solitary exercise on the flat

If he has progressed, Thibaut Pinot is not a specialist in the time trial on flat, it will probably never be, and does not have a training that excels in this area. Last summer, even with a very good break in the second stage, the Groupama-FDJ conceded in the team time 32 seconds on Jumbo-Visma Steven Kruijswijk (3rd overall) and 12 on the Ineos Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas. A Thomas who had still taken 35 seconds ahead of Pinot during the individual Pau, even if the French had distinguished himself with his 7th place.

However, next year, no team time trial on the menu, and no long individual time in the field, can liquidate the chances of Pinot. This is not why the route has no trap: the Tricolore must for example be particularly vigilant during the 10th stage between the island of Oleron and the island of Re, exposed to the wind, and therefore conducive to borders. And we saw during the 2019 Tour that the latter can be expensive …

A time trial in the mountains at home, the day before the finish

The only individual time of the edition, steep, will be played the day before the arrival on the Fields. And guess where? At Thibaut Pinot. The 36 km route from Lure (Haute-Saône) was drawn on French soil, on roads that it knows by heart, and will end with the now classic Planche des belles filles, with 6 km to 8.5%, where we can already imagine his supporters shouting.

"Of course I'm dreaming," said Pinot to the SMS Monday, while the stage had more or less flee The Planche is 15 kilometers from home, so I know a little, and with a chrono take advantage even more of the 30 or 40 kilometers that will be there.I will be advantaged? I hope, we will see well. Questioned on Tuesday, Christian Prudhomme, the director of the event, did not really play the card of coincidence. "We put this time trial in place so that there is a fight to the end.The arrival at the board of the beautiful girls, on a long enough time, it promises a real show, it That's why we put it on the eve of Paris, I hope everything will be played out there, that there will be two or three more to be able to fight for victory. " And if among those two or three, there could be a kid in the corner …