Thibaut Pinot

Thibaut Pinot (born 29 May 1990 in Mélisey, Haute-Saône) is a French professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam FDJ. He is rated as one of the most promising talents in French cycling, and ended as third overall in the 2014 Tour de France, and first in the young rider classification in the race.

Career

FDJ (2012-present)

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. Despite being the youngest rider of the Tour, 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.