France’s Pinot can’t wait to be on the road again with Tour in mind
Ineos world champion Rohan Dennis in lewd lockdown spat
PARIS: Frenchman Thibaut Pinot cannot wait to be allowed to train on the road again as part of his preparation for the Tour de France after the race was postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Frenchman, third overall in 2014 and who was a top contender when he pulled out injured two days before the finish last year, has had enough of working on his home trainer.
“The home trainer is not my thing, it’s got nothing to do with the sensations you usually have on the bike,” Pinot, who has confined at home since March 17, told his Groupama-FDJ team website on Sunday.
“I’m still doing it to say that I train but it is not a real part of my preparations. Virtual platforms were fun for a couple of weeks but I’m over it.” Pinot, however, believes that the new Tour de France dates, from Aug. 29 to Sept 20, will suit him.
“Even if there can be hot days, it’s got nothing to do with July, which pleases me. It’s a disadvantage that I won’t have to deal with,” explained the 29-year-old, who fares better in cold than hot conditions.
With no elite racing allowed before Aug. 1, Pinot does not know in which condition he will start the Tour. “Nobody can tell if they will be at 100% on the Tour,” he said.
Meanwhile, Team Ineos’ Australian world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis has closed his Instagram and Twitter accounts after appearing to break Spain’s lockdown law over the weekend.
The talented 29-year-old from Adelaide is the world time-trial champion but has a reputation as a loose cannon and quit team Bahrain-Merida after parking his bike by the team bus and disappearing during the last Tour de France.
This weekend he voiced his dissatisfaction on Instagram with the length of the lockdown before deleting his accounts. Screen grabs from other Instagram users showed posts such as: “Day 34 cracked and left the house. #covid19 can suck my ass and so can #quarantine.”
The accompanying photo appeared to have been taken on a countryroad from a car. Ineos is active in the fight against Covid-19, producing hand sanitiser and delivering it to hospitals.
Having won stages on all three Grand Tours Dennis joined Ineos for the 2020 season and would likely have been a contender for May’s postponed Giro d’Italia and favourite to defend his world crown in Switzerland in September. Dennis lives in Girona, close to the Pyrenees.
Dennis is widely reported to have told on-line critics he was only being honest and asking if they would prefer him to lie. The rider famously climbed off his bike early in the 12th stage of the Tour de
France in 2019 with no explanation a day ahead of a tim-trial he would have been favourite to win.
Dennis was at that time being primed as a Grand Tour contender who could pulverise time-trials and defend himself on the climbs, as he did when coming second on the 2019 Tour de Suisse. Dennis won the first stage of the 2015 Tour de France and briefly wore the famed yellow jersey. —Agencies