The day before the arrival of the Tour de France in Paris on Sunday July 23, the atmosphere on the road of the twentieth stage between Belfort and Le Markstein Fellering risks being boiling around the passage of Thibaut Pinot. The climber of the Groupama FDJ formation, darling of the French public, will be about to say goodbye to the Grande Boucle before putting his bike away for good a few months later. His fans do not want to turn the page without having sent him a last warm tribute on his favorite terrain, the mountains.
The French Federation of Lose, the parody website which “celebrates France which loses with panache”, therefore wants to reserve for its most prestigious ambassador an outing worthy of the name. Its leaders have thus launched an appeal to all fans of Franc-Comtois by giving them an appointment in a bend of the Col du Petit Ballon. “10 years that he thrilled us: it was time to return the favor. And we take on the best of you, ”explains the FFL’s Twitter account ready to invite the most fervent admirers.
“The FFF has given itself the mission of celebrating the idol of the people Thibaut Pinot in the last mountain stage of his last Tour de France”, specifies the collective which will erect an ephemeral bend in his name “to encourage him madly.”
How many will they be? A few dozen ? Several hundred to join the irreducible Ultras of Thibaut Pinot to organize a big party like the boiling supporters of Benoît Cosnefroy did on a small scale this Saturday on the slopes of the Col de Joux Plane? The FFL is committed to renting a bus to the most fervent fans from Paris by providing them with flags, paintings, tifos and jerseys to transform the famous Pinot bend into an erupting volcano.
