Her name is Vittoria and she has a little bell around her neck. A goat, offered by the organizers of the Tour of Lombardy to Thibaut Pinot. The French rider from Groupama-FDJ is competing in his last professional cycling race this Saturday.

Pinot has never hidden his love of goats. He raises several on his farm in Mélisey, a village in Franche-Comté. “I like the psychology of the goat. I almost considered them as domestic animals, like dogs, from birth,” he recently confided to Ouest France.

While Pinot travels the 238 kilometers that separate Como from Bergamo this Saturday (to follow live with commentary on the Figaro website), the goat Vittoria arrived in Mélisey, welcomed by the parents of the Franc-Comtois.