Thibaut Pinot

Thibaut Pinot
Personal information
Pinot at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné
Full name	Thibaut Pinot
Born	(1990-05-29) 29 May 1990 Mélisey, Haute-Saône, France
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)^[1]
Weight	63 kg (139 lb; 9.9 st)^[1]
Team information
Current team	FDJ
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Professional team(s)
2010–	Française des Jeux
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (2012) Young rider classification (2014)
Infobox last updated on 4 May 2014

Thibaut Pinot (born 29 May 1990 in Mélisey, Haute-Saône) is a French professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam FDJ.^[2] He is rated as one of the most promising talents in French cycling, and won a mountain stage of the 2012 Tour de France, while competing as the youngest rider in the race.

Career

Pinot at the 2012 Tour de France.

Pinot, aged 22 was the youngest rider in the 2012 Tour de France. He took a prestigious victory on the eighth stage from Belfort to Porrentruy, which comprised seven categorized climbs including the Category 1 Col de la Croix, where he passed Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) shortly before the summit. He then negotiated the descent and the flat portion of road before the finish situated 16 km from the climb. He held on to his lead over the chasing group which included some of the Tour's General Classification contenders despite the head wind, being frantically encouraged by his team manager, Marc Madiot. He crossed the line alone with an advantage of 26 seconds over the chasers.^[3] Despite being the youngest rider of the Tour,^[4] he managed to finish 10th overall in the general classification. At 22 years and 54 days, he became the youngest rider to finish in the top 10 since Raymond Impanis in 1947, who was then 21 years and 8 months old.^[5]

At the 2013 Tour de France, Pinot abandoned the race on stage 16. He rebounded from this disappointment to finish seventh overall in the Vuelta a España.

In the 2014 Tour de France, Pinot won the white jersey and the best young rider and finished in third place overall. He and Jean-Christophe Péraud became the first Frenchmen to make the podium of the Tour de France since 1997.

Palmarès

2007: 1st Overall Tour de Guadeloupe juniors; 1st Drôme Provençal juniors; 1st Challenge de l'est juniors

2008: 1st Overall Tour de Haute-Saône; 1st Overall Tour d'Ardèche Juniors; 1st Savoyarde Juniors

2009: 1st Overall Tour de la vallée d'Aoste; 1st Stage 3 Tour des Pays de Savoie; 1st Tour du Canton de Mareuil Verteillac; 1st Grand Prix de la ville de Delle