Thibaut Pinot confirms 2023 will be his final season, with curtain to come down at Il Lombardia

Thibaut Pinot has confirmed his intention to retire at the end of the 2023 season.

The 33-year-old broke the news during Groupama-FDJ’s presentation for the new season.

“It’s a decision that I’ve carefully considered over the years,” Pinot said. “I’m excited by the new things I’m going to be able to discover after my career, but I’m just as excited to race during this final year.”

Despite retirement now being in front of him, Pinot says there will be let up when he races in the new season.

“I’ve rarely been as motivated at the start of a season and I want to end on a high,” he said. “I do everything and I’m going to continue to do everything to achieve the best results possible.”

The Frenchman was long viewed as one of the country’s great hopes to break its long drought in the Tour de France, but that dream was never realised.

Injury and illness hit Pinot hard through his career, after a breakthrough effort at the Tour de France in 2014 when he claimed a podium finish.

The 2019 Tour is likely to be the one Pinot looks back on with regret. After winning the stage on the Col du Tourmalet, he was well placed to claim the Grand Tour but an injury to his leg on Stage 18 forced him to abandon on Stage 19.

Two bad years followed, and it was during the Covid lockdown that Pinot contemplated retirement.

It allowed him to reset and devote time to his farm – his goats are almost as famous as their owner – and that is where he will retreat after his final race at Il Lombardia in October.

“Cycling has taken a third of my life and now I want to devote myself to my second passion: animals and nature,” Pinot said. “I’ve always wanted to create things from what nature offers us – making honey, growing fruit and vegetables, seeing what the animals can give us.”

While a podium at the 2014 Tour was one of the career highlights, winning Il Lombardia in 2018 was one of his finest achievements and it is fitting that that is where Pinot will bring the curtain down on his career.