25-year-old Frenchman Thibaut Pinot of the FDJ team went into this year’s Tour de France carrying the hopes and expectations of all French cycling fans on his shoulders following his highly unexpected 3rd place overall in last year’s Grande Boucle and his win in the best young rider competition.

However, the gifted French climber did not quite live up to expectations as he finished 16th in the GC this year. He did, however redeem himself with a splendid win on the penultimate stage to Alpe d’Huez following an impressive solo escape.

Asked about his judgment on next year’s route after its disclosure in Paris earlier today, Pinot told French newspaper L’Équipe that he was generally pleased with what race director Prudhomme had revealed, and Pinot stressed that the two individual time trials might not bring too great time gaps between the main contenders for overall victory in Paris.

“It is a beautiful course,” Pinot told L’Équipe. “The first mountain comes after five days [and] it changes a lot of things and it suits me. The first week should be less complicated than this year. I will have to be careful around Carcassonne and Montpellier [because of the wind]. Both time trials please me well, although I am not sure that we should expect large differences between the leaders in the race against the clock along the coast.”

Aiming for podium

Interestingly, Pinot pointed out that next year’s mountains might in fact favour Movistar’s Columbian climbing specialist Nairo Quintana.

“The mountain stages are staggered, that's interesting,” Pinot explained. “In general, I find that the course tends to favour small riders. Next year’s itinerary should be more favourable to Quintana than this year’s route.”

Speaking about his own ambitions, Pinot said that he will be aiming for a repeat of his 2014 podium finish.

“My ambition is to go for the General Classification and finish as close to the podium as possible.”