THIBAUT PINOT WINS AT TOUR DE SUISSE
19 June 2015
Thibaut Pinot is a boss- plain and simple. Only 6 weeks after a strong victory on the queen stage at the Tour de Romandie he has done it again. Winning in Sölden, the hardest stage of the Tour de Suisse also led to him taking the leader’s jersey.
Thibaut is unbelievable, he always goes deep to take a win. When Thibaut pushed on the pedals with 3kms to go, there was no doubt that the victory would be his. Today was Thibaut at the front and the others behind. The Frenchman attacked from a select group on the final climb of the day— a 12km ascent to the foot of the Rettenbach Glacier— taking victory by 34 seconds over Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and another three seconds ahead of Simon Spilak (Katusha).This victory has a really nice taste as Thibaut suffered from insomnia the night before! It shows how he has been able to overcome some mental struggles and how he has taken a huge step towards better race management.
“Switzerland has been good to me; this stage was my aim,” Pinot told Swiss channel RTS. “But there are still four stages, including a time trial on Sunday where I’ll have to watch out for the rouleurs.”
With 10km to go, Denifl was the lone leader on the road, more than 4 minutes ahead of the peloton. An attack from the main bunch by Simon Spilak gradually eroded Denifl’s lead with an elite group forming behind Spilak.
Thibaut Pinot managed to gain 34 seconds on Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and 37 seconds on Simon Spilak (Katusha). Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) carefully paced his effort to finish fifth at 43 seconds and to keep a shot at overall victory. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) was dropped early on the climb but also rode intelligently, losing 1:37 to Pinot.
In the general ranking, Thibaut is leading the Tour de Suisse, 47’’ ahead of Geraint Thomas, 50’’ on Simon Spilak, 1’25’’ on Jacob Fulgsang and 1’32’’ on Tom Dumoulin. Everything will happen in the last time trial on Sunday.
