When announcing his retirement, smiling, Thibaut Pinot said that the first thing he will do after the last race will be to sell the rollersReading L'Equipe is above all a journey through shared memories and feelings we all felt a couple of years ago. Some have elaborated on them by leaving the position they grew up in to start a new project. Others, like Pinot, imagined their lives outside of cycling.
«If I go back a little – he says – I started thinking about it during the lockdownIt was the first time I felt like myself. It was, so to speak, a forced vacation, without stress, without pressure, without rushing everywhere. From that moment on, I asked myself many questions. About the fact that I was living at a 1.000 mph, that I wasn't enjoying the moment. There were riders on rollers, but I took the time to dedicate myself to my farm, to my life."
«We train 4-5 hours a day, but I have the impression that 24 are needed. You always have a little voice inside you that reminds you that you are a cyclist. During lockdown, for the first time since I was little, I no longer felt the pressure of constantly thinking about my bike. I got a taste of the life that awaits me. Starting over was difficult because it meant leaving the best three months after a long time».
Madiot and the paradoxes
Madiot knew it. The gruff Marc, who in Porrentruy with half a bust outside the team car he celebrated the first stage of the 2012 Tour, remembers when Pinot (in his second year as a pro) took a train from Melisey to have lunch with him in Paris, begging him to field him in that Tour.
«I felt the retreat coming – he says – I'm not surprised. We had a conversation in the fall and he confirmed what I had been anticipating.His arrival marked the beginning of a new era, the second birth of the teamFor many riders the years of two-speed cycling were a trauma, Pinot's generation has helped us rediscover our sporting momentum.
«He's a romantic, a boy with paradoxesHe wants to stay calm in his own world while also sharing his sporting life on Strava. He trains hard, but at the same time he has never accepted all the opportunities to improve that have been offered to him.His absolute achievement for me is the victory on the Tourmalet in 2019. One day I asked him if he wanted to win the Tour and if he thought about it in the morning while he was shaving.He said no, I understood that I would take care of it for him. For me Thibaut passed away with the fall of Nice at the 2020 Tour. The reconstruction It was long and painful, Nice is the turning point."
Away from the pressure
Another 90 leaving the group. It is not a premature retirement, but it came sooner than one would have imagined.. Later than From the mill e Aru, for example, but with something that ties them together.
“It was a blessing,” he says, “that he didn’t win the Tour. Obviously there are few people who can understand me. I wanted to win it and if I didn't succeed, it was a sign of fate. I would have become a public figure, which I didn't want.Every time I won a stage at the Tour, I wasn't in a rush to go home because I knew I'd have people at the gate. So I can't even imagine what it would have been like if I had won the Tour de France. I would never have gone back home again…
«I had goals, I achieved almost all of them. Now I only have revenge with the Giro, I don't want to leave it with the memory of a hospital, because the Giro remains the most beautiful race. Cycling has taken up a third of my life and now I want to devote myself to my second passion, animals, nature. If I can have the future I dream of, it is also because I did not win the TourMy life would have changed too much, that's why I don't regret it."
The life of the champion
We met him for the first time at the 2009 World Championships in Mendrisio, after his fresh victory at the Giro della Valle d'AostaHe had the future in his hands, France was certain that between him, Bardet and Barguil the next winner of the Tour would emerge.
«I've already arrived – he reasons – beyond my expectations. When I turned professional, I never thought I would win so many great races. That reassures me. And then I've remained honest, in my cycling philosophy and throughout my career. I'm satisfied with that. I had the raw potential to win more races, a major Giro for example, but in today's cycling this is not enough.
«The 2018 Giro was a click (he was taken to hospital dehydrated and with kidney complications on the day of Froome's feat on the Finestre, ed.). When you give up and end up in hospital in intensive care, you realize that life is not just cycling.That experience helped me accept my withdrawal from the 2019 Tour. I used to hate failure, it hurt a lot, but after 2018 it became different, I told myself I couldn't keep ruining my lifeI never wanted the career of a champion, it was never easy for me. During the Tour de France days, I hid in the middle because I didn't want people to recognize me.I was ashamed…».
As high as possible
Who knows if I announced it before will it take the fire off him or will it allow him to run and have fun like he did when he was under 23?The program is rich, expectations are still high.
«I am motivated to win as much as possible – he says – I'll do everything I can for this. I said in advance that 2023 will be my last season, to free myself from this burden and enjoy myself for the rest of my time. I don't make a cross on the wall every morning for the days to passI feel much less nervous and freer. I always said that when I couldn't win anymore, I'd stop.
«I have always been clear about my abilities. I will go to the next Tour with the aim of helping GauduFor my senior year to be good, I have to be there. If only for everyone who supported me. I was expected to win it, but I didn't succeed.Last year's Tour and Vuelta were frustrating. But that's also part of the journey to retirement."
