Career
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. 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 Colonel 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.
At the 2013 Tour de France, Pinot abandoned the race on stage 16.
He rebounded from this disappointment to finish seventh overall in the Vuelta a España. He and Jean-Christophe Péraud became the first Frenchmen to make the podium of the Tour de France since 1997. In 2015, Pinot had his first victory of the season at the Tour de Romandie.
He finished fourth in the general classification and was awarded the best Young rider jersey.
Grand Tour general classification results timeline.
