Home > News

Thibaut Pinot re-signs with Groupama-FDJ until end of 2023

Démare, Gaudu and Küng also receive three-year extensions with French squad

June 4, 2020
Share on SMS

Thibaut Pinot, one of the biggest stage race and Grand Tour stars in the peloton, has signed a three-year extension with Groupama-FDJ, a team he has raced for since 2010. After the slight decline of Romain Bardet, Pinot is seen as the Great French Hope to win the Tour de France.

In a press release Pinot said, “It was obvious that they wanted to continue the adventure with the Groupama-FDJ Cycling Team. The commitment of our two title sponsors until 2024 was clearly a determining factor in my decision to stay. The Tour de France is obviously still the ultimate goal for which I want to devote myself 100%.”

Tenth in his first Tour de France in 2012 when the squad was called FDJ-Big Mat, Pinot was third in the 2014 edition, which also saw compatriot Jean-Christophe Peraud of AG2R runner-up and Bardet sixth. Since then Pinot has earned fourth in the 2017 Giro d’Italia and seventh in the 2018 Vuelta a España. Along the way there have been wins in the 2018 Il Lombardia and Tour of the Alps.

Pinot has also experienced illness and injury frustrations in the recent Grand Tours. In third place with two stages to go in the 2018 Giro, Pinot became violently ill early in Stage 20 and fell to 16th before withdrawing before the final stage. Last year at the Tour, he was one of the best riders, with a famous win on the Tourmalet, but sitting in fifth after Stage 18 with only 20-seconds separating him from second place, he suffered a mysterious thigh injury the next day that saw him climb off his bike in tears.

Groupama-FDJ also extended the contracts of 2016 Milan-San Remo winner Arnaud Démare, rising star David Gaudu and Stefan Küng for three-years. Canadian Antoine Duchesne’s contract with Groupama-FDJ also expires at the end of the season.