The Groupama-FDJ rider says he takes pressure with a smile ahead of his best ever chance to win cycling’s greatest race
If
British Tennis fans endured a torturously long wait for Andy Murray to break through at
Wimbledon, then French cycling’s aficionados are going through a similar experience with Thibaut Pinot. Stubbled, tousle-haired, sensitive, moody and a boyish 30, Pinot is now being willed on to become the first French winner of the Tour de
France since Bernard Hinault in 1985.
There were tears across France, a deluge to match the storms that swept over the Tour’s final Alpine stages, when Pinot was forced to abandon last year’s race with a knee injury, just as he seemed poised to end the home nation’s long wait by claiming the maillot jaune in
Paris.