Saint-Étienne (AFP)

The week is perfect but the head remains cold: Thibaut Pinot was propelled Saturday in the third place of the Tour de France but the Franc-Comtois and his team Groupama-FDJ are committed to not ignite.

"You want me to jump on the bus, I can do it, I'm obviously very happy, but you have to be humble." The reaction of the sports director Philippe Mauduit, a few minutes after the 2nd place of Pinot in Saint-Etienne, sums up the atmosphere that surrounds Pinot within his group.

The shape of French is excellent, no one disputes it. His number, duet with Julian Alaphilippe in the last kilometers of the 8th stage, impressed a lot. "To succeed to follow Julian, then to hold until the finish line, it's great," concedes his brother and coach Julien Pinot. But caution is required.

"Do not get excited, we know very well that a Grand Tour is three weeks, we do not get carried away", continues the coach, bombarded with questions but little inclined to celebrate so early the good legs of his younger brother.

"It's a beautiful number, a beautiful moment of cycling and sports, but we are 15 days from the arrival in Paris," said Mauduit, smiling but serious look. Beside, the boss Marc Madiot team, sometimes conducive to ignite the exploits of his own, remains particularly discreet, not stopping in front of the press.

- "Pressure" -

Because everything remains to be done: Pinot is certainly the first among the potential candidates for the final podium, but he has only 19 and 23 seconds ahead of the two monsters Team Ineos, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal. The peloton has not yet started any major mountain range. He also did not play the game of the individual time trial, scheduled Friday in Pau.

The classification, "it does not mean much", assumes the Franc-Comtois. "I do not dwell too much on it because the week is coming, everything can change quickly".

Between the lines, we still find a real satisfaction. "I would have been told a week ago that I would be third (at this point in the race), I would have signed right now," said the 29-year-old climber, also aware that there is "only positive" to remember this step, "even if there is no victory".

"I'm happy with my form, I managed my preparation and that's why I'm confident for the future," he says, repeating several times that "it's bonus".

As if to free himself from a pressure that grows day after day around him, and which concentrates at a glance as his performances make the big difference with those of the other French expected on this Tour, Romain Bardet.

"There is inevitably pressure, but the biggest is the one that I put myself," said Pinot, who has been refusing for several weeks to say explicitly in the running for the podium: indicating here "want to win a stage victory before thinking of the general ", promising there" to go as high as possible without having regrets ".

"I do not want to disappoint my team because it is there for me," continues the climber of Haute-Saone. For now, even if it refuses to ignite, it is far.

© 2019 AFP