It is a grand cru Pinot which will start the Tour de France in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 15 days. This Saturday, a month and a half after a convincing stage victory in the Tour des Alpes, the Haut-Saônois of Groupama – FDJ did it again in the 7th and penultimate stage of the Tour de Suisse, 195 km long between Ambri (Ticino) and Malbun in Liechtenstein.
The Frenchman won alone at the top of the Malbun, a non-category pass (12.4 km at 8.4% average), ahead of the Spaniard Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) and the Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (Astana). He offered his second success this season when he had gone more than 1,000 days without lifting his arms before returning to victory at the end of April, the time necessary to regain the upper hand from back problems.
This Saturday, a group of fourteen breakaways, including Pinot formed at the start of the stage and counted up to almost 8 minutes ahead of the peloton. Still in the lead before the ascent of the Malbun, the group gradually split, leaving two men alone in front, Lutsenko and the Spaniard Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis), pursued by the Frenchman. The latter finally joined then dropped the two men to fly away to the stage victory.
“It was really long and hard, it was very hot, for me winning under 35 degrees is important,” he said after his success at the microphone of The L’Équipe channel. I see the bike differently than before my crash, I just want to win races, the rest doesn’t matter. You had to believe it. It was so hot that I didn’t want to put myself in the red from the start, but I think my tactic was the right one. »
In the general classification that Pinot, 15th at 4′40′’ no longer runs, Colombian Sergio Higuita (Bora), 4th in the stage on Saturday, stole the leader’s yellow jersey from Dane Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), 7th at the finish in Malbun.
The 85th edition of the Tour de Suisse, disrupted by the withdrawal of around thirty Covid-positive riders, ends this Sunday with a 25.6 km time trial in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein.