What if Thibaut Pinot won his first race of the season on home soil? From this Friday and until Sunday, the Groupama-FDJ climber sets off for “the Comtois triptych”: the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs on Friday, the Tour du Jura on Saturday and the Tour du Doubs on Sunday.
This event, created in 2020, is dear to the unfortunate hero of the 2019 Tour. He agreed to sponsor it and to do a few interviews in order to give it as much publicity as possible. “It was important to me to be the ambassador of this race, explains the Franc-Comtois. I wish I could have played it when I was younger or at the start of my professional career. It’s really a chance to have such an event in the region. There will be three days of racing in Franche-Comté. So, to help the organizers, it was quite natural that I agreed to sponsor this event. We are still in a difficult period to mount races. She started the year of the Covid. Which complicated things a lot. If my voice can do a little publicity, so much the better. »
His last season
But Pinot isn’t just keen to wave to the local crowd and pose for selfies from his supporters. “Win it? Inevitably with arrivals at the top, I tell myself that she can be in my ropes. Especially on percentages that I really know very well since I was little. Here, I often pulled the plug with my former team-mate Arthur Vichot. Winning at home would remain a great memory. »
Pinot knows that his main adversary is called Guillaume Martin. The Cofidis climber is also looking for success this season. For the moment, he has not done better than a 5th place on Paris-Camenbert. “I know that the public will be behind me, a bit like on the Planche-des-Belles-Filles, announces Pinot. But what counts to win are the legs, not the encouragement! In any case, it will motivate me even more. It would be very nice to win my first win of the season here. Everyone knows that 2023 will be my last year. And I really want to win more races before hanging up. If it can happen in Besançon, it would be even better. »