Thibaut Pinot ready for the Tour de France 2012
Thibaut Pinot will be the youngest cyclist riding the Tour de France 2012 after his name has been picked up by the French side, Team FDJ-BigMat for the coming race.
The cyclist is having a tough season and has not registered any wins in the first half of the year.
“I think I’ll be the youngest rider at the Tour de France, so above all I’m going there to gain some experience and enjoy myself by trying to get a result on a mountain stage,” he told Cyclingnews.
“I did a very nice Tour de Suisse,” Pinot said, matter-of-factly. “I was in the top 10 of the GC until the final Saturday, so I saw that I was able to follow the best climbers there and that I was capable of going to the Tour de France.”
The 22-year-old started his professional crusade with Team FDJ-BigMat in 2010 and has shown his loyalty with the team for the third consecutive season.
Team FDJ-BigMat is having a disappointed season and currently holds the second last position after the UCI World Tour Teams rankings.
It currently holds the 17th overall spot with a total number of 79 UCI points with Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank securing the last position.
Arnold Jeannesson (40), Matthieu Ladagnous (14), Steve Chainel (10), Sandy Casar (8) and Yauheni Hutarovich (7) made the major contributions to help the French side.
Pinot received a late Tour invitation after Thomas Voeckler abandoned the race because of a knee injury.
The 22-year-old noted that the team is also interested in sending him to the Vuelta a Espana to ease some pressure off his shoulder.
He briefed that he route of the Vuelta a Espana better suits him but it has always been his dream to ride the Tour.
Thibaut showed tremendous legs at the Tour de Suisse and is mainly targeting the mountain stages of the French race.
The final squad to accompany Pinot at the race includes Sandy Casar (Fra), Mickael Delage (Fra), Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra), Anthony Geslin (Fra) and Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr).
Arnold Jeannesson (Fra), Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra), Rémi Pauriol (Fra), Cedric Pineau (Fra), Thibaut Pinot (Fra), Anthony Roux (Fra) and Jérémy Roy (Fra) will also accompany the team at the race.
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