Thibaut Pinot may be riding his last Tour de France, but the French star proved he is determined not to go quietly as he took part in his first breakaway of the 2023 race and was in the thick of the action all of the way to the finish.
Fourth in Bilbao, Pinot finished two places worse on stage 12 as Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) claimed a fine solo victory.
But his participation in the break saw Pinot in vintage form on the roads of the Beaujolais wine country and have an added benefit of putting him back in the GC game.
He is lying tenth in the current Tour de France general classification standings, 6:33 down on the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) but less than 30 seconds behind teammate and overall contender David Gaudu. As a result, Groupama-FDJ will head into the Alps with two cards to play in the GC game.
"My legs weren't, I'd blown," Pinot said as he talked to the press in the shade of the Groupama-FDJ bus before his warm-down.
"But even if I wasn't on a good day, I gave it everything, I have no regrets."
Pinot explained that he'd had to go all out early on just to get into the break, and on an exceptionally fast, hot day through rugged hill country, he'd never gotten back on terms physically to fight for the rest of the stage.
"This is a stage that is going to leave a lot of riders with tired legs," Pinot said. "I fought hard, but so did everybody else who was out there in front. With that kind of heat, it was a stage that needed a lot of resilience."
As for the overall and what he could do from hereon, Pinot said he was "not too worried about that. I burned a fair few matches today, I hope I don't pay for it too much, and I'll try to take it a bit easier tomorrow."
He insisted that Gaudu remains the overall Tour de France GC leader for Groupama "and my big goal is a stage win. It was too hard today to enjoy that much, but I did like being out front again. We did what we could."
Despite his failure to take one last victory, it can't be forgotten that the Frenchman has already won Tour stages both in the Jura, tackled on Friday, and in the Alps which follow immediately afterwards. His first Grand Tour victory was in 2012 at Porrentruy and then he hit the jackpot in Alpe d'Huez in 2015.
Last but not least, when he heads into the Vosges on the third weekend, Pinot has already said he will be highly motivated by racing in front of his home ground. And to judge by stage 11, Pinot is surely a long way from having said his last word in his last Tour de France.
