Paris (AFP)
No Giro for Thibaut Pinot: the French, who still suffers from the back, gave up on Saturday to take part in the Tour of Italy, which will start on May 8 from Turin.
"I can't hide: I'm not in a condition to shine on the Giro", admitted the leader of the Groupama-FDJ team, struggling since his fall at the end of August in the first stage of the Tour de France.
The announcement came as no surprise the day after the arrival of the Tour des Alpes, which served as a test for the 30-year-old Franc-Comtois.
Friday, he described his record as "catastrophic".
"It is not even a question of form but the back pain prevents me from being efficient", explained the French, quoted by his team.
"At the start of the stage it worked, I also managed, on the pedal, to slip into the breakaway on the last day of this Tour des Alpes. Unfortunately, the more the kilometers go by, the more the pain increases. and at one point, it hurts too much to force ".
The head doctor of the French team, Dr Jacky Maillot, added: "His sacroiliac inflammation, following his fall on the last Tour de France, still prevents him from getting very high despite all the treatments received. Further investigations with new specialists in this field are scheduled for next week. "
- "A heartbreak" -
For Pinot, who had made the Giro his big goal for the first part of the season, the forfeit "is heartbreaking": "I'm disappointed but I'm thinking of the rest. I want to heal myself, leave these back problems behind me to regain my level and fight with the best. "
"No date for resuming competition has been set and no sporting objective has yet been defined," said his team which intends, in the words of its boss Marc Madiot, "to continue to support him in his convalescence".
Participation in the Tour de France, the start of which is set for June 26, is now hypothetical since the French team is already focused on the French champion Arnaud Démare for the sprints and the climber David Gaudu for the mountain.
"I think it is 99% excluded", replied before the Tour of the Alps the climber of Mélisey (Haute-Saône), one of the heroes of the Tour 2019 when he had been a potential winner until three days before arrival.
"It will be eight months since my fall in the Tour de France, it's starting to be long," added Pinot.
"If I end the year having regained my true level, if I managed to influence the races, it will be a victory for me".
The other possible objectives, the Olympics at the end of July, the Vuelta the following month, the Tour of Lombardy (his biggest victory in 2018), are situated in a more distant horizon.
Madiot, who has lived the ups and downs of the career of the Franc-Comtois since his debut in 2010, calms things down: "Thibaut is going through an ordeal, we will of course give him the necessary time to come back. He keeps the confidence and the support of the whole team. "
© 2021 AFP