Thibaut Pinot returned to the stage podium at Saturday's Tour de France for the first time since 2019, jumping out of the chase group on the final stage of the climb to Mende, and the French hopes that a rider who had a difficult time recovering from injury is now in good shape and heading to the Pyrenees. He emphasized.

Pinot and his teammate Stéphane Kühn (Groupama-FDJ) entered the break of the day on stage 14, which started with more than 20 riders, but Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) jumped from the front with 50km to go, Andreas Krohn (Lotto-Soudal), Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain-Victorias) joined him and split.

Cung set the early pace for Pinot and dropped out of the pack on the Côte de la Farge; on the lower side of the final climb of 10.2% at 3km, the depleted chase group had closed the gap to the leading trio (Cron dropped out with a flat tire) to about 20 seconds. As Matthews accelerated and dropped his companions, Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Easy Post) began his chase. Pinot initially stayed behind, but pushed near the top of the climb and pulled away from all but two riders before the line.

"The feeling wasn't great. My legs were already full of toxins, so I tried to pick up the pace."

"I tried to get to the summit with what little strength I had left, but I couldn't climb any faster. At the bottom, I would have never thought I could have done what I did.

Pinot finished third, 34 seconds behind Matthews and 15 seconds behind Bettiol, and relentlessly chased stage 9 winner Bob Jungels (AG2R Citroën), who finished fourth on the climb to Chatel.

It was years of hard work that propelled Pinot to the top of the results in this Tour de France, finishing third overall in the 2014 French Grand Tour and boasting three stage wins, the last of which was the Col du Tourmalet on stage 14 in 2019 Groupama-FDJ's Pinot battled injuries after crashing on the opening stage in 2020. He then missed the 2021 Tour as he continued to recover from a back injury sustained the previous year. That year, Pinot relinquished his GC spot to teammate David Gaudoux.

The move up to third place was a move in the right direction, but not the step onto the podium the French rider had hoped for. Pinot finished second to Steven Cummings in 2015, in a stage that also finished in the town in the center of Lozère.

"I'm very disappointed, but it was difficult to manage today," Pinot said.

"I don't have much to regret. My legs weren't great and I gave it all I had. I'm still a little short on form, but I'm still positive."

"Looking at the power data, I know I'm not in the best shape. I can't wait for the Pyrenees and I know I will be better there."