Pinot wants to make peace with the Tour de France
FDJ rider hoping to get over his fear of speed
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) has said that he wantsꦫ to make peace with the Tour de France, after being reduced to tears by the sports biggest race in 2013.
“I want to play a free role at the Tour. I know I ✅am tense on the bike, this is my weak point," h🌞e told the French newspaper Dauphiné.
Pinot's fear of speed, which stems from a serious crash he had as a junior, came to a head in the Pyrenees and he even went as far as 168澳洲5ꦚ最新开奖结果:questioning his desire to stay in the race. The Fre♎nch rider went into the this year's Tour with high hopes, after he finished 10th the year before. His ambitions fell by the wayside when he struggled to stay with the rest of the peloton on the opening mountain stꦕages.
The 23-year-old crossed the line in tears at the end of stage nine after losing more than 20 minutes on the road to Bagnères-de-Bigorre. Each stage compounded his anguish and by the time he left on Stage 16, he was over an hour down on the race leader C🍨hris Froome. Since then FDJ general manager Marc Madiot has been trying to help his rider overcome his fears. One methodꦉ was to put him into an car rally d🍸riving course on ice.
"This course helps me because you must be self-assured. Released,” he told Dauphiné. “Hopefully there will be a release even though I do not expect to be with the๊ best. I just want to get off the bike and not have the apprehension on each mountain summit. The car allows me to learn and move forward and that's good."
Pinot will ride both the Tour de France and t✃he Vuelta a España in 2014, as he did this year.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your 🧸inbox!
Born in Ireland to a cy⛄cling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Stu💧died sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.