Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) has confirmed that he will return to the Giro d’Italia in 2018 before tackling the Tour de France. It will mark the second year in succession that Pinot will tackle both the Giro and Tour, although he will follow a lighter race programme in the early part of 2018 in a bid to ensure that he is competitive in each Grand Tour.
Pinot enjoyed a fine Giro debut in 2017, placing 4th overall and winning the penultimate stage in Asiago, but he paid a price at the Tour for his efforts in Italy in May. The Frenchman began the Tour targeting stage victory rather than a high overall finish, but he was hampered by fatigue and illness, and abandoned in the final week.
Despite Pinot’s affinity for Italian racing in general and the Giro in particular, it initially seemed that he would be forced to miss the corsa rosa in 2018 in order to focus on the Tour. With a gap of six weeks rather than the usual five between the end of the Giro and the start of the Tour in 2018, however, Pinot has decided to tackle both races once again this year. Speaking at the presentation of FDJ’s new title sponsor Groupama in Paris on Wednesday, Pinot explained that he will race fewer days in the early months of the season in order to arrive fresh at the Giro and Tour.
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“I’ll have a lighter programme at the start of the year, and there’ll be an extra week between the two races,” Pinot said, according to AFP. “It’s a gamble and I hope that it pays off. At the end of the July, I didn’t believe it would be feasible at all. But after having a break, we discussed it and analysed a lot of things. My desire was to do the Giro and the Tour, so it was complicated to have to choose between the two.”
Pinot has a strong record in Italian races dating back to his overall victory at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta as an amateur in 2009. After turning professional with FDJ, he proceeded to win the Settimana Lombarda in 2011, and has since shone at Il Lombardia, where he placed third in 2015 and 5th last year, and Tirreno-Adriatico, where he finished third in 2017.
Pinot remained in contention for overall victory right up to the 2017 Giro’s concluding time trial in Milan, and he made no secret of his objective of finishing on the final podium in Rome this time out.
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