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Teams & Riders Thibaut Pinot discussion thread

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Bummer. Well, I hope he doesn't relax too much, because there is a Tour to win next season. And I'm convinced that if he times his form right (as he did this year), he will be at least as strong, if not stronger than his INEOS rivals, Dumoulin, Roglic and other contenders and pretenders.
 
Bummer. Well, I hope he doesn't relax too much, because there is a Tour to win next season. And I'm convinced that if he times his form right (as he did this year), he will be at least as strong, if not stronger than his INEOS rivals, Dumoulin, Roglic and other contenders and pretenders.

Laugh all you want mate, but everyone with two functioning eyes could see Pinot ride away from everyone this Tour. Not just that, he could sit with the best while riding with a sore leg caused by a cursed handlebar. He beat Bernal time and time again, except Galibier. I could also point out that Pinot destroyed Bernal, Roglic and Nibali in Lombardia, but I do recognize how immense that ride from Bernal was, and I understand if this would be a bit unfair to include in a head-to-head comparison. His 2018 Vuelta was inconsistent, some days hanging on with Yates, other days losing minutes, but he only had one stupid time loss because of bad positioning - and his strength uphill made up for it. If he hits his 2019 Tour form and consistency, I see him as prime candidate for the win along with Bernal.

Dumoulin and Froome are both unknowns; I am not entirely sure whether their respective injuries have cost them their winning edge (or in Froome's case, his post-bilharzia level) or not. Roglic is a very strong rider, but I'm not entirely convinced that he is going to be that alien-like machine, I get the impression that some think he will be, or already is. It's just a hunch, but perhaps I say that because of his age - even though he started cycling late, he hasn't got many shots to score, because of up and coming youngsters like Pogacar, Mas, Evenepoel and Sivakov. Carapaz is also quite young.

So yeah, for guys like Pinot, Roglic and Dumoulin: Clock's ticking. I guess I just have more faith in Pinot than the others, because he has shown that he could drop the supposedly strongest climber in the world and later Tour winner, Egan Bernal multiple times and in the Tour de France itself at that!
 
Laugh all you want mate, but everyone with two functioning eyes could see Pinot ride away from everyone this Tour. Not just that, he could sit with the best while riding with a sore leg caused by a cursed handlebar. He beat Bernal time and time again, except Galibier. I could also point out that Pinot destroyed Bernal, Roglic and Nibali in Lombardia, but I do recognize how immense that ride from Bernal was, and I understand if this would be a bit unfair to include in a head-to-head comparison. His 2018 Vuelta was inconsistent, some days hanging on with Yates, other days losing minutes, but he only had one stupid time loss because of bad positioning - and his strength uphill made up for it. If he hits his 2019 Tour form and consistency, I see him as prime candidate for the win along with Bernal.

Dumoulin and Froome are both unknowns; I am not entirely sure whether their respective injuries have cost them their winning edge (or in Froome's case, his post-bilharzia level) or not. Roglic is a very strong rider, but I'm not entirely convinced that he is going to be that alien-like machine, I get the impression that some think he will be, or already is. It's just a hunch, but perhaps I say that because of his age - even though he started cycling late, he hasn't got many shots to score, because of up and coming youngsters like Pogacar, Mas, Evenepoel and Sivakov. Carapaz is also quite young.

So yeah, for guys like Pinot, Roglic and Dumoulin: Clock's ticking. I guess I just have more faith in Pinot than the others, because he has shown that he could drop the supposedly strongest climber in the world and later Tour winner, Egan Bernal multiple times and in the Tour de France itself at that!
Bernal, the strongest climber in the world?? Who said that? When he beats dumoulin or froome, we will talk. I agree with you, pinot was the best climber until his withdrawal, but let's be honest froome and dumouli are in a clear different league from the rest of the gt guys.
 
Bummer. Well, I hope he doesn't relax too much, because there is a Tour to win next season. And I'm convinced that if he times his form right (as he did this year), he will be at least as strong, if not stronger than his INEOS rivals, Dumoulin, Roglic and other contenders and pretenders.

No need to worry.

 
This is not good for Pinot. We don't need another rider putting all their eggs in the Tour de France.

I could be wrong but once again this seems to be more of a mental break than a physical one. It must be a strain for riders who have constant disappointment with their biggest goals. Either way I hope he can come back strong next season. The Tour needs such riders to counter the current Ineos domination of the race. I don't doubt that Pinot has the ability to win a grand tour but if it's going to happen it will have to happen soon, with the emergence of younger riders well under way. After all, Carapaz, Yates and Thomas have all won grand tours recently and now Roglic. Bernal also but he was tipped as a major talent from a young age. The worst thing about it from Pinot's point of view is that he was in rare form for July and he may not be able to repeat that form very often. Time will tell.
 
Bernal, the strongest climber in the world?? Who said that? When he beats dumoulin or froome, we will talk. I agree with you, pinot was the best climber until his withdrawal, but let's be honest froome and dumouli are in a clear different league from the rest of the gt guys.

You didn't say Bernal was the strongest climber in the world, but many people and analysts held him in very, very high regard. And for good reason. I mean, he, a 22-year old having only ridden one GT before as a helper, was crowned a podium-contender at the very least by everyone - and the rather well-respected Danish and Scandinavian cycling hub feltet.dk actually put him as the favorite. Bookies had Bernal as co-favorite with Thomas. This forum also had Bernal as the favorite for the Tour; https://forum.cyclingnews.com/threads/2019-tour-de-france-predictions-challenge.34652/post-2369414 , with Pinot and Thomas filling out the podium. You could rightly point out, that Tour-favorite = best climber (in the world), but I think it's fair to say that it is difficult to win the Tour without being one of the very best in the mountains. But the thing is, that the reasons given for him being looked at as the favorite, was because of his climbing, not his TT, which was supposed to be better than everyone else, including Thomas; which could cause frictions like Wiggins-Froome 2012.

Now of course you could make the sound argument, that all of this wouldn't be the case if Froome didn't crash, Dumoulin didn't crash and Thomas didn't show poor form and crashing in Suisse. Matter of fact, they did. If you read what I wrote, I said that Froome and Dumoulin are unknowns. Sure, those two at the top of their game are in a different league from the rest of the gc-guys. The thing is, noddy97, that we don't know whether they still are. This aren't "simply" broken collarbones, they are dealing with. Froome's crash could have ended his life. Dumoulin kind of messed up his knee, which is one of the most complex parts of the human body. It is just as likely, if not more likely, that Froome's GT-winning level he discovered in August 2011 has vanished, or at the very least, partially gone. It is also a possibility, that the decision to ride on while not having his knee sorted out, will hamper Dumoulin in the future - and with recent GC-winner Roglic as his team-mate, he might not get the benefit of the doubt, if question-marks regarding his level persists because of a poor start to the season. So what I do, is that I look at the present reality (the stages, the results, form, injuries), how I perceive it (I think Bernal looked strong, but Pinot stronger - stage results also reflected that imo), and forming my opinions from that.

Of course, should both Froome and Dumoulin recover, it would be foolish not to consider them top favorites for the Tour - I just can't say that they will.
 
This is not good for Pinot. We don't need another rider putting all their eggs in the Tour de France.

Although, par contre, Pinot has to ride the Tour next year, so why not spend a little extra time thinking about how to approach it differently? Whatever you can attribute it to, bad luck or something missing in his prep, what he's been doing the past 7-8 years haven't gotten the results most of us think he should be getting.

It would be a little odd to hear him say, I'm going to focus on the Giro or Vuelta or one-day races next year. We all know that as France's strongest GC rider in the prime of his career that he'll be facing high expectations. He knows it, too.

If I were his coach, I'd be working on ITT form a little bit to try to ensure he doesn't lose more than a minute to guys like Froome/Thomas/Roglic/Dumoulin.

If all 4 of those guys ride, plus Nibali, Pogacar, Bernal and even Landa and Lopez, and if Bardet finds form again, the Tour will be an order of magnitude more difficult than this year's. And we might see a wild card like Alaphilippe or a Marc Soler take it to the big boys again.
 
It would be a little odd to hear him say, I'm going to focus on the Giro or Vuelta or one-day races next year. We all know that as France's strongest GC rider in the prime of his career that he'll be facing high expectations. He knows it, too.

If I were his coach, I'd be working on ITT form a little bit to try to ensure he doesn't lose more than a minute to guys like Froome/Thomas/Roglic/Dumoulin.

Doing Giro-Vuelta or TdF-Vuelta double, in previous season before target season for the Tour would be excactly right thing in his case to do, but.....drama & vacation. So not that promising for next season.
 
Bernal, the strongest climber in the world?? Who said that? When he beats dumoulin or froome, we will talk. I agree with you, pinot was the best climber until his withdrawal, but let's be honest froome and dumouli are in a clear different league from the rest of the gt guys.
Tom Dumoulin never was a strongest climber in any race he has done in entire career. His advantage lies elsewhere...
 

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