2023-06-13 21:40:58
According to Marc Madiot, the general manager of the Groupama-FDJ team, Thibaut Pinot “is liberated in his head. He knows that this is the home stretch of competition. Unlike many athletes or riders, he wants to give 2000% on this final stretch.”
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“Leaving Thibaut Pinot at home would have been professional misconduct”estimates Marc Madiot, the general manager of the Groupama-FDJ team, Tuesday June 13 in the evening on franceinfo, following the announcement of the workforce which will race the Tour de France 2023. The Francomtois cyclist, selected following his 5th place on the Giro d’Italia, said to himself “very pleased and very happy”. On the other hand, the sprinter Arnaud Démare was excluded from the workforce.
franceinfo: Thibaut Pinot will compete in his last Tour de France. What can he claim on this big loop?
Marc Madiot: As he said, he wants to do a Grand Tour with the team and that’s the goal we’ve set together. Thibaut Pinot is an atypical rider. In general, when one enters the last season of a career, it often ends on a gentle slope. There, we are dealing with someone who is at a level that he perhaps did not even have last year. He is released in his head. He knows it’s the home stretch of competition. Unlike many athletes or runners, he wants to give 2000% on this final stretch. He rose to power in the Giro. He recovered well. The clues as to his physical condition are excellent. From there, my job is to make the best team possible. Leaving Thibaut Pinot at home would have been professional misconduct.
You did not select sprinter Arnaud Démare for the Tour although he has been racing for Groupama-FDJ for 12 years. Is this decision purely sporting?
Yes, when you take part in an event like the Tour de France, you try to show up with the team most suited to the proposed route. In our workforce, we had enough to make a great team for the mountains. This is the reason why I have reviewed my copy somewhat in recent days, to get to the bottom of what you can expect in the mountains. I put the emotion aside. I have a lot of respect, a lot of admiration and a lot of gratitude for the work done by Arnaud Démare within our team for 12 years. It’s a sign that we worked well together. But I think that when we have to prepare for the Tour de France, my duty and my role is to make the best and most solid team possible in relation to the Tour. Arnaud would have deserved his place, but we are lucky, within Groupama-FDJ, to have an interesting, consistent and competitive squad. I regret the situation for Arnaud, but such is the life of the sporting world and high competition.
What are Groupama-FDJ’s objectives for this Tour de France?
The same as last year: to be as close as possible to the podium or to be on the podium, to have a homogeneous team, able to move and react in the actions of the race and in the stages which will necessarily be conducive to grips initiative. I’ve been watching what’s been happening since the start of the season, both in the Giro and in the classics. We noticed that the battle for rankings started very early and that it was necessary to have dense and compact teams in order to be able to react, be operational and not be faulted. It is in this spirit that we have built the Groupama-FDJ team for the next Tour de France.
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