Albi (AFP)

In a few seconds, Thibaut Pinot saw all his efforts from the first week of the Tour collapsed: the French dropped on a flat stage Monday after flying over the first ascents and sees his dream of victory away.

Between the time trial mastered in Brussels by his team Groupama-FDJ (2nd stage), the fiery attack on the Board of the Beautiful Girls (6th stage), and the coup de force of Saint-Etienne Saturday (8th stage) Pinot had taken 19 seconds ahead of title-holder Geraint Thomas.

The sudden "coup de bordure" teams Deceuninck and Ineos, 38 kilometers from Albi, left him at 1 min 40 sec Welsh. The penalty is heavy.

"What do you want me to tell you?", Simply reacted to the Franc-Comtois on the finish line in Albi, deeply touched, before quickly reach his hotel located a few hundred meters from the city center. "It's a shitty day."

His teammates, irreproachable until then, have not had the words either to explain this blow club. "We were well placed all day ..." lamented the Swiss Sébastien Reichenbach. "It's a shame, when we think of all the energy we put to stay (at the front of the pack)".

The team, once outpaced by this brutal acceleration when the road became narrower, has certainly given all his energy to try to pick up, approaching just seconds of the group of favorites 18 kilometers from goal. But she then definitely let go. "We were close, at eight seconds, but we were all to block ...", said Reichenbach.

- "Luck is not here" -

"There are times like this where luck is not there, we find ourselves behind when it should not be," summed up in the wake Matthieu Ladagnous, aware of being "trapped".

"Today (Monday), it was not the day we had to miss, but we scrambled when we had to be there," added a little later the team's sports director Philippe Mauduit , keeping his phlegm. Two days earlier, he refused to ignite after Pinot's coup with his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe to Saint-Etienne, who had propelled the team's climber onto the podium.

How to explain this moment of inattention? "It's not a lack of cohesion," said Mauduit. "This is a moment when there is panic in the pack".

"It's normal that he's disappointed, that there's anger," added the sports director about Pinot, refusing to consider "the story already completely written" and inviting the whole team to "take the time to take stock of this day ".

The chronometric report is quickly made: Pinot point, before the Pyrenees and the individual time trial of Pau, in 11th place at 1 min 21 sec Thomas (2nd), a specialist of the "chrono" that could so, on paper, increase his lead Friday on the eve of the arrival at the top of the Tourmalet.

The Franc-Comtois probably thought of approaching this legendary pass with the intention of defending his rank and keeping his lead over his rivals. From now on, he knows he will be sentenced to reduce his delay.

© 2019 AFP