How Thibaut Pinot and the FDJ prepared "the season after"

• Thibaut Pinot raced this Thursday on the roads of Provence for the first time since his abandonment during the Tour de France, last July.
• The runner is now recovered from this great disappointment, and now turns to the next edition.
• If its land preparation was the same as last year, the approach to the races will not be quite the same at Groupama-FDJ.

Six months, 18 days and a few hours. Like transient lovers left like that, without warning, we remember very exactly the day when we saw Thibaut Pinot on a bike for the last time. It was on July 26, after only a few kilometers on the coast leading to Aussois, during the 19th stage of the Tour between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and the Col de l'Iseran.

The leader of Groupama-FDJ, struck down by a muscular thigh injury, was forced to retire when he had the legs to win on the Champs two days later. In tears, and France with him.

"We start from scratch"

The Franc-Comtois, even more than all of us, obviously, had a hard time recovering. But after a longer cut than usual, that's it, he re-attacked Thursday during the first stage of the Tour de La Provence. “The page is turned. Completely. We move on to something else, it's a new season, we're starting from scratch, ”he assured, smiling, the day before departure.

There was no doubt about it. Especially since the route - very mountainous - of the Tour de France 2020, unveiled in October, gave the whole FDJ team a very good reason to look ahead. But how do you go about it, with all these injuries or illnesses that have plagued the runner when it shouldn't have been in recent years? To hope to go to the end next July, shouldn't we, nevertheless, take a little look in the retro to adjust some things in the preparation?

Should Champagne already be kept cool for Pinot on the Tour 2020? via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/53y8j7bIow

Marc Madiot does not really want to drag on the subject. “We are not in fear of the injury. You are the one in stress, I think. It looks like football journalists with PSG. Fortunately, we are not in the same frame of mind as you sometimes can be, ”replies the boss of the team, willingly teasing. More seriously, he continues: “Difficulties are part of the life of a cyclist. It's hard to overcome them sometimes, but we take the next step anyway. We are no longer thinking about the injury of the past. "

We understand the idea. To replay the moments of lose , it's just good to shoot yourself in the foot. The reality is a bit more nuanced, anyway. The staff studied the events of the last Tour from all angles to understand what happened. Jacky Maillot, the team doctor:

We tried to identify the contributing factors [the injury], although there is no very obvious cause. It's a collection of little things. It is obvious that we will take this into account this year and adopt preventive measures. "

The details are a team secret, but the approach to the races will not be quite the same at the FDJ. In the meantime, Thibaut Pinot hasn't changed anything in his pre-season preparation. Like last year, he left in January for a training course on the Teide volcano, in Tenerife, with four teammates. Eighteen days at an altitude of over 2,000 meters, nothing like checking out. "The conditions were great," he says. The weather was nice and warm, that's what I was looking for. It allowed me to go find what I was missing in terms of sensations after this cut longer than usual. I am confident about my preparation. "

A 100% French back-to-school program

Words that are not trivial. At 29, the French climber knows himself better than ever. “The runners always have a very fine perception of their sensations. Thibaut is something else. When he gets up in the morning, he knows if it's a good day, explains Jacky Maillot. He knows exactly what type of training and workload he needs to get on top of his goals. "

According to the doc, the indicators are good. Pinot is in its lap times last season. All that remains is to see what gives the real novelty of this year: a 100% French back-to-school program, with the Tour of the Alpes-Maritimes and Var and Paris-Nice in the wake of this Provencal warm-up. "It is a desire for change on his part, and also from the staff," explains Marc Madiot. It is not uninteresting to change. It's motivating, exciting. "

And perfect for recovery? "If we avoid kilometers and travel, it's all the easier, yes," replied Maillot. The interested party has one last argument to make: the public. In the interviews he had given this winter, he said that the last Tour de France had served him to "no longer be afraid" of pressure and expectations. "This is also why I do a lot of shopping in France," he admits. To find these emotions. We too are ready, Thibaut.

Sport

Tour de France: "It no longer scares me" ... We are six months away from the start and Thibaut Pinot is already teasing us

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