Home > News

Pinot triumphant in Tour de Romandie time trial

Thibaut Pinot (France/FDJ) revealed that he’s improved his time trial enough to be a Tour de France threat in Friday’s Tour de Romandie chrono, beating the likes of Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin over a medium-distance, hilly course. Nairo Quintana also showed his time trial chops to retain the race’s lead by 23-seconds over Pinot.


The field finally received a sunny day to roll past the orchards and vineyards around Sion. In the middle of the clockwise 15.11-km course sat a 4.4-km climb of 5%, the intermediate time check taken at its peak. About 28-riders into the stage, Dutchman Lieuwe Westra (Astana) replaced countryman Steven Lammertink (LottoNL-Jumbo) at the top of the standings with a time of 21:15. Was this a good sign for compatriot Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin)?

Belgian Dries Devenyns of IAM Cycling was the first to break the 21-minute mark with 20:54. But soon after, Chris Froome, who had a disappointing Thursday that pitched him into 93rd on GC, set the best intermediate time at the 8.98-km mark with 14:44. At the finish Froome had eclipsed Devenyns by 24-seconds.

But it wasn’t to be Froome’s first individual chrono win since 2014, as Bob Jungels (Luxembourg/Etixx-QuickStep) surpassed the Brit by half a second.

At the intermediate mark, Ryder Hesjedal looked like he was on a good ride that would yank him higher up the GC. Christian Meier had already stopped the clock at 21:47. Hesjedal finished in 42nd with 21:26 and moved up three spots on GC to 39th. Meier rose two places to 54th.

Dumoulin became the first rider to beat Froome’s intermediate time of 14:42 by two-seconds. At the finish, he broke the 20:30 time shared by Jungels, Froome and Jerome Coppel (France/IAM). The new time to beat was 20:23.

Thibaut Pinot has improved two facets of his racing over the last few years: descending and time-trialing. It was clear from his 14:32 intermediate best time how far he’s come in the race against the clock. The question was whether he could retain the 10-second gap over Dumoulin for the last seven-kilometres.

The Frenchman couldn’t hang on to all of the lead, but took the win by two-seconds. Nairo Quintana matched Jungels, Froome and Coppel with 20:30 to grab sixth on the day and keep a healthy lead going into Saturday’s queen stage.


2016 Tour de Romandie Stage 3
1) Thibaut Pinot (France/FDJ) 20:21
2) Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) +0:02
3) Bob Jungels (Luxembourg/Etixx-QuickStep) +0:09
42) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Trek-Segafredo) +1:04
61) Christian Meier (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +1:26

2016 Tour de Romandie GC
1) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) 7:22:35
2) Thibaut Pinot (France/FDJ) +0:23
3) Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) +0:26
39) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Trek-Segafredo) +5:44
54) Christian Meier (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +8:42

Categories: News |