Thibaut Pinot continued his build-up to the Giro d’Italia by placing second atop Mont Poupet at the end of a rain-soaked edition of the Tour du Jura on Saturday afternoon.
The Frenchman was unable to follow the acceleration of winner Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samsic) on the climb to the line, but he outsprinted Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) to claim the first podium finish of his final season as a professional.
“It’s always disappointing to come second, we came here to win,” Pinot said, according to DirectVélo. “We simply came up against somebody who was stronger. Kévin was a step above.”
The race was the second in a trio on home roads for Pinot this weekend. The Groupama-FDJ rider placed fifth behind Victor Lafay (Cofidis) at the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs on Friday and he will complete the triptych of one-day races at the Tour du Doubs on Sunday.
“Like yesterday, we were missing a little bit to fight for the win, it’s a pity,” Pinot said. “But I’m still happy, it was a hell of a day, the kind of race you’ll remember for a long time. In these conditions, given the cold, it really wasn’t straightforward. You had to try to stay warm as best you could. I’d like to have won, to thank everybody.”
Pinot announced in January that 2023 would be his final season as a professional rider and he is set to return to the Giro d’Italia for the first time since 2018, when he looked set for a podium finish only to be forced out by illness on the final weekend.
The Frenchman placed 10th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico last month and he will also line out at the Tour de Romandie as he puts the finishing touches to his preparation for the Giro, which starts on May 6. He declared himself “reassured” by his display on Saturday.
“I had the flu after Tirreno,” Pinot said. “It’s hard to be at 100% in these conditions today, but I hope I can keep improving as the weeks go by. You can’t forget that the Giro, my objective, is still three weeks away and there’s still the Tour de Romandie in the meantime. I’m quite reassured.”
Pinot lost most of the 2021 season to injury but he returned to win a stage of the Tour of the Alps last season before going on to place 14th overall at the Tour de France, where he was rode largely in pursuit of stage wins. He struck a bullish note about his prospects in the mountains in the weeks ahead, insisting that his 2023 season was not simply a lap of honour.
“I hope to progress. We’ll come to the real mountain stages, with efforts of 30 or 40 minutes,” Pinot said. “We’re a long way from those kinds of parcours here. I prefer longer efforts but it was still important to make the efforts and to come to these races to prepare for what’s to come.
“Everybody is talking about a farewell tour, but I want to give my answer on the road. This shows that I’m not just here to sign autographs and take photos, but also to win races. That’s what’s important.”
