Thibaut Pinot had difficulty realizing on Friday that he was going to end his career the next day at the Tour of Lombardy, the end of an atypical career in the world of cycling that he seems above all relieved to leave, even if he would have preferred to make it in better shape.

After having accumulated health problems since the Tour de France, the 33-year-old French climber hopes above all to finish the race so as not to disappoint his supporters, many of whom will come to cheer him one last time on the side of the road.

“It had to end,” explained the Groupama-FDJ rider, who “does not like being the center of attention”, during a press briefing at his hotel in Albavilla, in the surrounding area. of Como where he will make his last start on Saturday.

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“I am a bit stressed. It is still a special event. I can’t wait for the race to begin to let go of all this. I receive a lot of nice and kind messages. But for now I’m trying to concentrate on the race. I will take the time to respond to everyone starting Sunday, taking the time to do things right. A lot of people will be there for me and obviously that adds pressure, especially when you know that you risk not being up to the task. I don’t like to disappoint people.”

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“To say it would work would be to lie. I would have preferred to finish in good health at Lombardy. I hoped that my physique and my fragility would leave me alone. But since the Tour de France, I have experienced an accumulation of health problems which have meant that it has become really complicated. I caught some things… what I got in my stomach (intestinal parasite, Editor’s note), I had never had it before in my career and it had to fall on me with three weeks to go. I still feel like I’m making progress, but I’ll need about ten days to feel good. Afterwards, I am so used to fighting against all that that I made up my mind.”

“Afraid you won’t finish? Yes I think about it, especially since Italian races are not forgiving. Of the five Monuments, the Lombardy is the hardest race to finish. If you give up at the exit of San Pellegrino, there are 90 terminals left, you know it’s dead. On a day without, there is this fear. I try not to think about it too much. I am still aiming to finish my career properly. I’m waiting for tomorrow to find out how I get up. For the moment I don’t have the answer.”

“On Monday I come home and the first thing I will do is go look around at my animals. It’s been ten days since I left, but in my head it feels like it’s been a month. I felt like this was going to be the longest week of my life and it is. I don’t like being the center of attention and today I am there and tomorrow I will be too. The more the years go by, the less comfortable I feel about it all. It had to end.”

“I don’t really realize it stops on Saturday. I think this will be more the case after the break, when there will be rain and fog and I will no longer need to wear the shorts. If I lock myself in my farm, we will quickly forget. I don’t want to forget the people I’ve been around for fifteen years, so I’ll go see them as soon as I can. I hope that people will remember me as the runner that I was, quite simply, with my faults and my qualities, the victories and the defeats. Life goes on and people move on quickly too. In any case, it can’t be worse than today.”