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Teams & Riders Thibaut Pinot discussion thread

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Re: Re:

Alexandre B. said:
macbindle said:
Did you read the bit where I said I'm not talking about his injury? Good. So let's put that to bed.

For the rest, it's a matter of conjecture. All race, I've seen a guy who is not tough enough to win, despite the clawing back of time he lost earlier. You have seen something else, fair enough. In my opinion, he lacks mental strength. I'll bet you a race up the Burway that I'm right.
Look at his palmares, all the races he won and tell me to my face that he lacks mental strength.
This is cycling. If you didn't win its because you didn't want to win badly enough. If you used to win and know you don't its just because you lost that determination. :rolleyes:

Thibaut was clearly one of the two best climbers this year, his time-trialing is solid, and his team seemed to have stepped up. Only question would be if he keeps targeting July or he goes for the Giro again, but he has truly established himself as a contender in any stage race he goes to. He just needs a bit of luck.
 
Re:

Rollthedice said:
I'd say he was the best rider in this Tour until the abandon. Even with the damned crosswinds we was in it for the win. Now it's all over but some beautiful memories from this Tour should never be forgotten. Allez Tibo!

With neutral luck (omitting team screwup on stage 10 and granting escape from the quad tear that ended his tour and probably hampered him in stage 18) he would have had over a minute on Bernal coming into stage 19. In that scenario, he would have been a big favorite to win it all.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
What kind of crap is that, he would have lead the Tour without the crosswinds. He was extremely strong this year, best man on two seperate occasions in the Pyrenees. We simply wouldnt know how far he would go today, although Im quite sure he wouldnt be able to follow Bernal, but never say never. Just sucks for him and the race.

I think the way he was toying with Bernal in the Pyrenees showed that he would have been his equal in the Alps. Without the crosswinds (and of course this sad injury), there is no way he wouldn't win the Tour. I can't understand how McBindle makes their conclusion and rambles about him not being tough enough after a race where the guy was tough enough to beat the competition on several occasions.
 
Re: Re:

RedheadDane said:
macbindle said:
Alexandre B. said:
macbindle said:
Did you read the bit where I said I'm not talking about his injury? Good. So let's put that to bed.

For the rest, it's a matter of conjecture. All race, I've seen a guy who is not tough enough to win, despite the clawing back of time he lost earlier. You have seen something else, fair enough. In my opinion, he lacks mental strength. I'll bet you a race up the Burway that I'm right.
Look at his palmares, all the races he won and tell me to my face that he lacks mental strength.

He has had more TdF DNFs than he has finished :lol:

And we all know the TdF is the only race that matters. You do realise we're talking about the defending Lombardia champion.

We are talking about winning the Tour.

He has had 4 DNFs out of 7 rides. One 3rd, one 10th and one 16th.

That is the palmares of somebody unlikely to win the tour. Lombardia is neither here nor there.
 
Re: Re:

Forever The Best said:
macbindle said:
Alexandre B. said:
macbindle said:
Did you read the bit where I said I'm not talking about his injury? Good. So let's put that to bed.

For the rest, it's a matter of conjecture. All race, I've seen a guy who is not tough enough to win, despite the clawing back of time he lost earlier. You have seen something else, fair enough. In my opinion, he lacks mental strength. I'll bet you a race up the Burway that I'm right.
Look at his palmares, all the races he won and tell me to my face that he lacks mental strength.

He has had more TdF DNFs than he has finished :lol:
Wow, what a condescending attitude. In moments like this, if you aren't gonna say anything nice don't say anything.

We can all have a little cry for Thibaud...then we can come back and face reality.

Loads of people crash out of Tours for all sorts of reasons. It's an occupational hazard.
 
Re: Re:

macbindle said:
We can all have a little cry for Thibaud...then we can come back and face reality.

Loads of people crash out of Tours for all sorts of reasons. It's an occupational hazard.
You can troll all you want. Like it or not but Thibaut Pinot has shown in this year's TdF that he's a legitimate GT contender. That's not debatable...that's a fact. In many ways, it's his best display ever in a GT, and he has had a few good ones. Talking about his mental strength...poor guy...you wish you had one tenth of his toughness. You probably never rode a bike, competed, or you would know that to make it to that level genetics is not enough...you have to be a tough sob to put your body through misery like all these guys do. All of them.

This is not over for Tibopino. It would be devastating for someone lacking his mental toughness and writing smack in a cycling forum, but he will get over it. How fast can he recover depends on the extend of the injury. Hopefully we'll see him in Italy...hopefully before that.

Merci Thibaut. Keep your head up high. It's cycling, it's life...not always fair.
 
Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
Valv.Piti said:
What kind of crap is that, he would have lead the Tour without the crosswinds. He was extremely strong this year, best man on two seperate occasions in the Pyrenees. We simply wouldnt know how far he would go today, although Im quite sure he wouldnt be able to follow Bernal, but never say never. Just sucks for him and the race.

I think the way he was toying with Bernal in the Pyrenees showed that he would have been his equal in the Alps. Without the crosswinds (and of course this sad injury), there is no way he wouldn't win the Tour. I can't understand how McBindle makes their conclusion and rambles about him not being tough enough after a race where the guy was tough enough to beat the competition on several occasions.

I think Bernal was getting stronger the longer the race went. Pinot the opposite. The high altitude in particular obviously suited him. But I am very sad for Thibaut today I don't understand some of the nasty comments above, not necessary, kick a man and his fans when they are down.
 
Re: Re:

Cookster15 said:
I think Bernal was getting stronger the longer the race went. Pinot the opposite. The high altitude in particular obviously suited him.

I love Bernal but can we really say this?

Pinot took time from Bernal at LPDBF, Tourmalet and even more at Prat d'Albis. And then on the Galibier we have no idea what the real level was because Pinot was already injured. I would assume that Bernal would've been better on these 2000m+ climbs, but there's no definitive.

They're the best two climbers in the race, that's for sure. I can't say any more than that.
 
Re: Re:

Cookster15 said:
tobydawq said:
Valv.Piti said:
What kind of crap is that, he would have lead the Tour without the crosswinds. He was extremely strong this year, best man on two seperate occasions in the Pyrenees. We simply wouldnt know how far he would go today, although Im quite sure he wouldnt be able to follow Bernal, but never say never. Just sucks for him and the race.

I think the way he was toying with Bernal in the Pyrenees showed that he would have been his equal in the Alps. Without the crosswinds (and of course this sad injury), there is no way he wouldn't win the Tour. I can't understand how McBindle makes their conclusion and rambles about him not being tough enough after a race where the guy was tough enough to beat the competition on several occasions.

I think Bernal was getting stronger the longer the race went. Pinot the opposite. The high altitude in particular obviously suited him. But I am very sad for Thibaut today I don't understand some of the nasty comments above, not necessary, kick a man and his fans when they are down.
100% this. Would have been tough to match Bernal in the Alps, but Pinot had stepped up a level this year, physically and tactically. At the very least he would have laid it all on the line to go for the win; which is perhaps more than can be said for several of the other riders in the top 10 at the moment. Pinot is a massive loss for the race at this tage.
 
Re: Re:

luckyboy said:
Cookster15 said:
I think Bernal was getting stronger the longer the race went. Pinot the opposite. The high altitude in particular obviously suited him.

I love Bernal but can we really say this?

Pinot took time from Bernal at LPDBF, Tourmalet and even more at Prat d'Albis. And then on the Galibier we have no idea what the real level was because Pinot was already injured. I would assume that Bernal would've been better on these 2000m+ climbs, but there's no definitive.

They're the best two climbers in the race, that's for sure. I can't say any more than that.

The reason Bernal looks like the best climber in the race is that Pinot got injured. Bernal may have been getting stronger than Ala and Kruijswijk but nothing indicates he was better than Pinot. Especially when you consider Pinot climbed yesterday with a torn quad.

Gutted for him. Best chance to win Tour of his career even after crosswinds and gets a freak injury.
 
@Cookster15 - Trolls are nothing new :) .

As sad as I was and still am, in the end no one died. It's just a bike race. There are many dramas in this World much worse than Thibaut Pinot's DNF. And maybe no one is better at coping with setbacks than Thibaut, who has been there before and always came back stronger.

I want to see the positive. After all, if it wasn't for him and the Groupama-FDJ team, maybe no one would have exposed Ineos and Thomas. He's the only one who dared to attack them. Tibopino was flying in the Pyrenees, attacking from the front, being The Man. This morning, he was in it to win it, I think that only Bernal had a chance to deny him the victory. It wasn't meant to be. Tonight, I'm sad. Very sad.
 
Re: Re:

luckyboy said:
Cookster15 said:
I think Bernal was getting stronger the longer the race went. Pinot the opposite. The high altitude in particular obviously suited him.

I love Bernal but can we really say this?

Pinot took time from Bernal at LPDBF, Tourmalet and even more at Prat d'Albis. And then on the Galibier we have no idea what the real level was because Pinot was already injured. I would assume that Bernal would've been better on these 2000m+ climbs, but there's no definitive.

They're the best two climbers in the race, that's for sure. I can't say any more than that.

You cannot deny that Bernal was stronger in the 3rd week than the Pyrenees. Also consider he was playing teammate to Thomas. Once unleashed at high altitude there was no argument. Every day this week the gap looks greater. Not a Contador like explosion but inexorably he looked stronger compared to his competition day by day. He made the decision easy for Brailsford.

Tomorrow he will seal the deal beyond doubt. Another MTF at 2,365 metres (7,750') and if you look carefully at the profile you will see that 5.5% is misleading. The ramps are nearer 8% interspersed with false flats and even short descents. This irregularity won't help the diesels.
 
Re:

Saint Unix said:
It will be a huge shame if Pinot retires without having won the Tour. He's shown he's physically capable. I hope the starts line up for him next year. He deserves to win it and France deserves a rider like him to end the drought.
Thibaut Pinot looks like the Goran Ivanisevic of cycling. If so, he'll have his day :) .
 
Re: Re:

Tonton said:
Saint Unix said:
It will be a huge shame if Pinot retires without having won the Tour. He's shown he's physically capable. I hope the starts line up for him next year. He deserves to win it and France deserves a rider like him to end the drought.
Thibaut Pinot looks like the Goran Ivanisevic of cycling. If so, he'll have his day :) .
Home fave, gotta be the Murray of cycling
 
For me the best climber in the race
He even stayed with GC guys on the Galibier when injured
But he is so damn unlucky to get that injury

I hope he get another go at the Tour ...he certainly can do it
FDJ should strengthen the team abit more ..maybe another climbing dom.
Kung was a very good buy.

As for Bernal being the best in the 3rd week
There were only 3 MTN stages in the 3rd week and Pinot was injured before the first one
Plus if Bernal had been let lose? ...he was let lose
And one needs to be the best climber through the whole race ...and Pinot was that

Plus it will be awhile before we have such high mountain stages back to back in a Tour again ...
 
Re: Re:

luckyboy said:
Cookster15 said:
I think Bernal was getting stronger the longer the race went. Pinot the opposite. The high altitude in particular obviously suited him.

I love Bernal but can we really say this?

Pinot took time from Bernal at LPDBF, Tourmalet and even more at Prat d'Albis. And then on the Galibier we have no idea what the real level was because Pinot was already injured. I would assume that Bernal would've been better on these 2000m+ climbs, but there's no definitive.

They're the best two climbers in the race, that's for sure. I can't say any more than that.

It's a three week race, not two. Gutted for Pinot (not quite as gutted as I was for Contador when he abandoned in 2014) and I hope he reflects on the great race he rode. I think the heat and frankly the pressure contributed to things. Have they explain how/when the lesion appeared? He looked fine on the Galibier?
 
He is only 29 and from last year he has shown his growing strength in Giro/Lombardia/Vuelta and TDF. Inconsistency also comes from inexperience but now he has plenty of experience. Doing the Giro/Vuelta combo in a year gives double exp. He has ~ 5 years more left, plenty of chances to build palmares. He has a good mountain team with Gaudu and Reichenbach and in Kung they have a good flatlander. If they pay a little more attention to the crosswinds or hire somebody with that knowledge, a begian/dutch maybe , it would help his chances tremendously.
 
I'd actually argue that he has a strong mentality; what with his ability to come back despite all his struggles.
Take last year: Got sick during the Giro, skipped the Tour (I actually remembered that as having been the plan all the time), then returned to win two stages at the Vuelta, and then winning Lombardia.
 

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