Tour of Switzerland: Pinot in boss – Sports.fr

A nearly 2 700m altitude, Thibaut Pinot won Wednesday’s queen stage of the Tour of Switzerland in Sölden. The French had also seized the leader’s jersey.

Clearly, Switzerland is good at Thibaut Pinot. Six weeks after winning the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie in Champex, the French managed a new high-level performance on Wednesday by winning at Sölden, place of arrival of the 5th stage of the Tour de Switzerland perched at nearly 2700 meters above sea level. The leader of the FDJ team has built its victory in a final climb amid eternal snows, with serenity and courage to drop gradually his main opponents and show its superiority in the mountains.

While some of the main favorites for the Tour de France had instead chosen the Criterium du Dauphine last week, Pinot knew he waited in the queen stage of the Tour of Switzerland. The 10 kilometer climb to Sölden, 11% average, trotted in his head since the start of the event as an appointment not to be missed, as an opportunity to make an impression and be assertive in its leading role in the JDF. Décramponné slightly in the first hundred meters, Pinot first gave the impression of being in a bad light. A few kilometers further, the contrast was striking.

On the first train to pick the right car, in particular a group composed of Geraint Thomas (Sky), Simon Spilak (Katusha) and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R -The World), Pinot then accelerated without releasing his effort to pounce on the poor Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling) filed without looking before to go alone to the finish line and win one of the most successes of his career. Pozzovivo resurrected after his terrible fall in the Giro, took second place at more than 30 seconds of French, while Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), the holder of the yellow jersey, abandoned 1’37 “.

Pinot has thus took first place overall, 47 seconds margin on Thomas and 50 on Spilak, while still four stages to go, including one against the clock 38 Sunday kilometers in Bern. At the Tour de Romandie, the timed effort had cost him the final victory and had even ejected from the podium. Pinot, which must make further progress in this area has probably learned the lesson.