"I'm ready for real life," proclaims the climber from Franche-Comté, third in the 2014 Tour de France, in an interview with the sports daily.

"When I run, we'll know it's the last time, before I go and bury myself in my hole", explains with a smile the native of Lure in Haute-Saône to justify this announcement made at the start of the season. 'year.

In this interview, the Groupama-FDJ rider specifies that he will retire in October after the Tour of Lombardy, an event he won in 2018.

Before this final race, he will compete in the Giro in May and hopes to participate in his last Tour de France, in July.

"For my last year, I want to go there, it would piss me off to miss it. The Tour was hard, but it was also the one that gave me the most beautiful emotions (...). For my last year to be good, I have to be there. Just for all those who supported me", wishes the Frenchman.

"Trigger Point"

After a fall in the Tour de France 2020 which had handicapped him for months, the rider said in December that he was rid of his back pain.

But the weight of the years and the effects of this injury finally pushed the runner to consider his exit.

© Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP/Archives

"The triggering point" for this decision to stop "was (m)an injury in 2021 (following his fall in Nice on the 2020 Tour). There, I realized that it was difficult, that I was getting old and several times I thought about quitting.

In 2020, he reached the finish of the Tour de France in Paris despite this injury to finish 29th overall.

He had then participated in the Tour of Spain, but had given up after two stages.

His persistent back pain had forced him to give up the Giro in 2021. In 2022, after more than 1,000 days of hunger, he had won a stage of the Tour des Alpes, then another on the Tour de Suisse before taking the 15th place of the Tour de France.

“The year 2022 was important, I had a contract which ended at the end of 2023, it was obvious to finish it”, says Pinot in the Team.

"But before, I wanted to have gone around the question. When I have competed in the Giro and finish in Lombardy, that will be the case."

Alpe d'Huez and Tourmalet

If injuries undermined the last years of his career, Pinot offered the French public very good emotions on the Tour.

A professional since 2010, he revealed himself during the 2012 edition, winning a solo stage and finishing 10th overall.

© Thomas SAMSON / AFP/Archives

Two years later, he confirmed by taking third place in the Tour, his best result so far in nine participations.

His stage victory in Alpe d'Huez in 2015 increased his popularity tenfold.

He did it again at the Tourmalet in 2019, but he had to give up before the end of the Tour, caught up with a muscle injury.

He then describes this abandonment as "the biggest slap" of his career.

Pinot also won a stage of the Giro in 2017, which he finished just off the podium (4th).

He also has two stage victories in the Vuelta, during the 2018 edition, which he finished in 6th place.

The manager of Groupama-FDJ Marc Madiot, warned "at the end of the season" of Pinot's desire to stop, reacted to this formalization on the training website.

"I think he has simply gone around the question (...). He is at peace with himself", he explains.

"There will inevitably be emotion at the end of the year. The little tear in the eye, the end clap, it will be in October. It's not for today. (... ) This is not a farewell tour, and I know that it is not in this logic either", assures the boss of the cycling team.

© 2023 AFP