Thibaut Pinot during the Tour de France, September 6, 2020. -
Tim De Waele / AP / SIPA
Thibaut Pinot will be starting from Tirreno-Adriatico, a weeklong stage race in northern Italy this Wednesday.
Six months after his violent fall during the Tour de France, the Groupama-FDJ rider, who has decided this year to focus on the Giro, is still not fully recovered from his back injuries.
Pessimistic a few weeks ago, he hopes “to find rhythm and confidence” in Italy.
The cycling season has started again for a few weeks now, and it's still unclear if it's really worth watching.
Far from us the idea of wanting to dramatize, of course, but if Thibaut Pinot cannot get rid of his back problems, it will not have the same flavor.
More than fifteen years of experience on the ATP circuit with Richard Gasquet could have vaccinated us, but we must believe that the heart does not care for reason.
While the Franc-Comtois presents itself this Wednesday from Tirreno-Adriatico, we do not really know what to expect.
To be honest, his big interview in the columns of
L'Equipe at the
beginning of February had a bit of a drag on our morale.
“It was complicated, all fall, all winter.
I thought I was on the right track at the end of the year and then for a few days now, it's not terrible, ”he said, not hiding his doubts for the future,“ because it will still be six months ” .
"We think things are better and the next day we dive back"
Six months, indeed, since that damn first stage of the Tour de France and this fall with serious consequences in Nice - sacrum and iliac cracked, with significant contusions in the area.
Since the recovery, it has fluctuated between the best and the clearly less well.
During February, for example, on the Tour des Hautes-Alpes et du Var, he spent two good days, before clinching the 3rd stage, describing “not great” sensations.
And then a week later, he finished the Drôme-Ardèche Buckles “happy” to have been able to combine high intensity efforts.
"It's always complicated when it is difficult to pinpoint the origin of the problem," said Thomas Voeckler, consultant for France TV.
To choose, it is better to break something frankly, at least we are fixed on the duration of unavailability and then we leave.
There, we believe that things are better and the next day we dive back.
It must be exhausting.
"
A hundred runners fell during this massive fall 3 km from the finish in Nice.
- ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / POOL / SIPA
This is what Jacky Maillot, the medical manager of Groupama-FDJ, said after the abandonment of Pinot on the Vuelta last October: “This type of lesion is less spectacular than a fracture but the microcracks are also very long. to heal.
Above all, the sacroiliac joint is very stressed when making efforts, with gear or as a dancer.
"
For an official update, we will have to wait a bit.
Asked last week, the French team did not want to speak about their case immediately.
Last Wednesday, Pinot finished the Trofeo Laigueglia warm in the peloton, leaving his teammate Valentin Madouas to show the jersey to the forefront.
He hopes to be able to accelerate the pace on Tirreno, especially when arriving at the top of the 4th stage judged at Prati di Tivo, after an ascent of 15 terminals at an average of 7%.
The general should be played largely there, but this is not (yet) what interests the little prince of Mélisey, "came without setting particular objectives", a few weeks before the Giro, his main objective.
A breach of its rules
It must be said that the winter was complicated for the French.
The sudden return of pain pushed him to accept what he had always refused: an infiltration.
“From an ethical point of view, I've always been against it,” he explained to
L'Equipe
.
There, we were in a period totally out of competition.
I would never have done that between two races.
What he says on the subject in the rest of the interview is also damn interesting, because we touch on the way to take care of oneself, a question always delicate in the bicycle.
"If you know how to use infiltrations well ..."
Today, corticosteroids, which are used to fight infection or pain, are prohibited systemically (oral, intravenous and intramuscular) but authorized under certain conditions locally.
They can be administered by eye drops or ointment, but most of the time they are administered by infiltration.
"During an infiltration, part of the molecule can pass into the general circulation, and therefore have a boosting effect," explains Gérard Dine, professor of biotechnology and medical biologist at the University Hospital of Troyes.
This is called a systemic passage.
If you know how to use infiltration well, you can arrange for it to allow significant systemic passage.
"
In other words, malicious people can always manage to give performance a little boost.
And the effect can be long lasting.
"It depends on the runner, his weight, the place where the infiltration is carried out and the product used, but if we use" delay corticosteroids ", it can go up to three weeks", assures the Doctor Dine.
Coming back to Thibaut Pinot and his back pain, he could certainly get better while remaining legal.
"When I see the effect that the infiltration has had on my back, I tell myself that races, there are several that I would have finished," he said.
But the guy is not the type to put his convictions aside.
“I will stay straight in my thing,” he assures us.
Thomas Voeckler has no doubts:
“His stance is to his credit, and is not surprising from him.
He is one of those runners who have a clear conception of their profession.
No one doubts his integrity, as is the case with many runners today.
The bicycle, after being pointed out, is now shown as an example.
In other sports, some people come across as tough guys when they play undercover.
"
The practice is indeed very widespread at the high level.
Footballers do not hide it, nor Rafael Nadal at the last Australian Open, for example.
Cycling, long decried and now at the forefront, will take a new step in 2022 with the total ban on corticosteroids in competition.
“If the new generation can know the bike without all of that, I think we'll see a difference,” Pinot said in his interview.
He doesn't have to forget himself.
The third of the 2014 Tour is only 30 years old, after all, and there are still a few seasons to keep us looking forward to.
If its back must be classified as a national heritage to be restored for that, we will go to the ministry ourselves.
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