REACTION
"It's a shitty day." That's how Thibaut Pinot summed up the situation on Monday at the finish in Albi, having lost 1'40 "on the two big favorites of the Tour, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, after a border stroke caused by their team, Ineos, and the Deceuninck-Quick Step team of the yellow jersey, Julian Alaphilippe, about 40 kilometers from the finish.
"We all knew that there was wind and then it was the fight, that it was the big fight," agreed one of the Groupama-FDJ's sports directors, Philippe Mauduit, at the microphone. 1. "We lost ourselves in this battle, but it's always the risk anyway." It went pretty well, but we know it's fragile, we know that at any moment on the Tour, it can happen things that put in trouble.Today, it's for us, and at times, it's panic in the pack. "
3rd to 11th overall
Pinot is not the only outsider in the Tour to have lost time on Monday. Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), winner of the last Critérium du Dauphiné, Colombian Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) and Australian Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) finished in the same group as him. "When we see the riders who finish with Thibaut ... Fuglsang is here to play the win, Uran made a podium there is not that long (2nd, in 2017), Richie Porte aims to titillate the podium, c is like that ... It's a lost battle, but it's not the end of the Tour. "
Our consultant Thomas Voeckler thinks the same thing. "A lot of things can happen in the Tour de France and it's not lost yet, although it would have been better to avoid this 1'40" disbursement. "Third at the start of the stage at Saint-Flour, just 53 seconds from Alaphilippe, Pinot is now 11th, 2'33 ".