Speaking yesterday, Thibaut Pinot has spoken of his desire to race the 100th Giro d’Italia for the general classification following two disastrous attempts at trying to win the Tour de France.

"I really want to do this Giro," Pinot told L'Equipe. "I do not know how we're going to approach the race and how my program will look like. From early November, I will talk about it, and we will finalise, but the trends are favourable. It's a very attractive parcours. There are six real uphill finishes and two real time trials. It quickly becomes spectacular, with the finish on Etna on the fourth day."

Pinot has a love-hate relationship with his home Grand Tour in France, taking a stage and tenth on GC in 2012 before a disastrous 2013 was combated by third overall and the white jersey in 2015. Last year he crashed out of contention but won atop Alpe d’Huez and this year he abandoned due to illness after a week and a half.

"I want to get back into the dynamics of a good general classification on a three-week race," said Pinot, speaking to another French newspaper Liberation. "I have had two failures in the Tour de France from this point of view - or a failure and a half, considering my victory at the Alpe d'Huez (he is referring to the bad attempts he had in 2013 and 2015, he doesn’t count this year as he was sick, ed.). Frankly, it would be great to break the routine, to test a climb like the Stelvio which I still have never done.”

Pinot, despite his stardom and talent, will not have the final say if he does the Giro. With FDJ being backed by the French lottery, the Tour is a huge goal and if they feel their team without Pinot cannot achieve success, he will need to ride the Tour.