Giro d’Italia 2023: ‘Arrogance came over him’ – Reaction to ‘daft’ riding from Thibaut Pinot on Stage 13

The Breakaway team have given their reactions to the hugely entertaining, if ultimately unsuccessful, attacks from Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) after he lost out to Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) on Stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia on Friday.

Adam Blythe, Robbie McEwen and Dan Lloyd had their say in the studio after the day’s racing, and the trio all agreed that emotions seemed to scupper Pinot’s best intentions with emotions causing some ill-advised tactics.

“It is almost like he forgot to be a bike racer,” Blythe began on The Breakaway. “He rode all the way up that climb on the front, kept attacking, kept being brought back, kept attacking.

“If you do that three or four times, you’d be like ‘I’m not doing this anymore, I’m just going to save myself because they just keep catching me’. So for me, it was quite daft of him really, I think that is the politest way to put it.

“It was just like he unattached his brain. I think maybe a little bit of arrogance came over him thinking ‘I’m a lot better than you guys, I’m going to keep doing this’ because why else would you keep riding the whole way up that climb on the front?”

McEwen agreed and was left equally confused by Pinot’s flamboyant but exhausting approach.

“He rides on passion and emotion, and it often gets the better of him, like today,” McEwen said. “He just attacked himself to a standstill because he was so irritated where Cepeda would not contribute, and Rubio did not do much either.

“Pinot argued with him, he yelled at him, he gestured at him, then he rode even harder on the front himself. He attacked on the climb until he had nothing left.

“Pinot was the out-and-out favourite and is quite punchy at the finish, but he just used all of his energy on the way up the climb. He would have won in spite of himself because it was not intelligent the way he rode all the way up. Had he won, you would have said he got away with it.”

Lloyd added: “We love him for it, but Pinot wears his heart on his sleeve, and you see all of his emotions on display whenever he is riding a bike. He could have done things a little bit differently in that last climb to the finish to try to take the win today.”

Regardless of Pinot’s tactical approach, it was a day to remember for a delighted Rubio, who later revelled in what he had achieved.

“It will take time for me to realise that I won a stage of the Giro d’Italia,” he later said in his press conference. “I didn’t believe I’d do it.”

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