EXCLUSIVE.Thibaut Pinot: "I am on the sidelines of this environment, and even of society I believe"

It was a Saturday evening of December in the lukewarm ibère.The back room of a hotel's hotel lobby, ground cables, inanimate cans, ducts, a bay window and the sea just there.Two black folding chairs.Thibaut Pinot seated on one, jogging up above the calves, hooded sweatshirt.Well, not well, sad, funny, nostalgic, sensitive, instinctive.

We tell you: this great interview is the starting point for a new adventure for extension.Thibaut Pinot agreed to be our exclusive columnist all this month of January, a year after Arnaud Démare.It will be every Friday, he will have carte blanche.

Last July.You absolutely wanted to go to Tignes, join the internship team."I wanted to find my teammates," you said.What, through them?

Find who I am, finally ... (silence) ... Find the cyclist that I had lost for a few months.The three months I was far from all this was three endless months.Especially when you are not in retirement or you have not stopped.In retirement, it's different I think, but as long as you are a runner, you are still with the aim of performing.And you only have one desire that's it.Perform.Nothing else.

We are a cyclist because we have rituals, teammates, a calendar?

Yes that's it.And still beyond.Cycling runner, it's all day.It's not like a job where you do 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. then 2 p.m. to 6 p.m..Cyclist, you get up in the morning you are already "bike".You go to bed in the evening, you are always "bike".It's all day, runner.When you say that you did two hours of bike in your day, we can answer you "Ah, it's cool, your day was quiet".Except that you thought of a bike ten hours.Everything you do is focused on it.You know, when you go shopping, you are going to have a pain on the legs the next day.You want to go drink a beer, you know that the next day, she may have hurt you more than good.At the time, she did you good, but despite everything with this ulterior motive, this little voice that tells you that it is not great.It's the same for what you eat, for rest, recovery, sleep.The energy you spend right to left, it can be harmful for the next day.

Seven days on seven.

It's H24.And then you also stress to sleep well because the next day you have a five or six hour session to do and you have to be there.As you must be there on a race.Even in training, I put myself a certain pressure to be well the next day.

Do you have escapers during which, mentally, could you cut completely?

I am lucky to have a life next to the bike which is very rich and rather very engaging with my farm.I think some runners would be shocked to see my life off bike.Some do five hours by bike, then get into the sofa or under the duvet and wait for the evening meal.Me no.I remove manure, I feed my animals, it takes me two or three hours a day.I sometimes think about it, I tell myself that it is not good to do that, but it makes me feel good.

We have known you hyperactive for anyway.

Yes, I am hyperactive, maybe too much.This is a defect in high level sport.The energy you don't put on the bike, you put it elsewhere.Sometimes I train and what I do in the afternoon with my critters it eats me as much energy as in the morning.And it is also.

The three months you were talking about were "endless" say you.We are talking about suffering.

Mental, yes.Especially since for me, it was the Giro period, Giro that I wanted to do and that was planned, at the base, in my program.There were races every day ... Whatever you do, everything brings you back to your condition in these moments.You turn on Twitter, TV, anything, you always face a bicycle info.Even people remind you.When you go shopping, when you go to the bakery.Especially in my little village.There is not a day when we don't talk to you about bikes.They always bring me back to that.Everyone was talking to me about the Vuelta.They were: "We hope to see you at the Vuelta".And I replied "yes" while knowing that it would not be possible.Even in May I knew it would not be possible.But I couldn't tell them, I didn't want to disappoint them.

"I haven't often thought of me in my career, in the end.I thought a lot about the team "

Do you still have this concern not to disappoint?

Yeah I always have the concern for not disappointing.I always want to give emotions to the people who support me, especially in this period where I was a lot supported.These people, I want...