Thibaut Pinot proved how far he has come in the time trials when he finished a very surprising 9th in today's final stage of the Tour de Romandie. The performance was undoubtedly the best ever in a race against the clock but the Frenchman was still left with a bitter taste in his mouth as a crash in the queen stage cost him a top 5 finish on GC.

Heading into the final time trial of the Tour de Romandie, Thiabut Pinot found himself with a tough ask if he wanted to make it into the top 10 of the general classification. Sitting just outside the 10 best riders, the French climber had to make up time on noted time trialist Andrew Talansky to reach his pre-race objective.

Already in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, however, Pinot had indicated that he has improved a lot in time trials over the winter when he did his best ever performance in the final stage of the Basque race. Despite today's course having a tough climb, the route in Spain was much better suited to the Frenchman though.

However, Pinot again exceeded all expectations when he finished a very surprising 9th in the stage to move himself ahead of Talansky and into the overll top 10. The Frenchman was obviously pleased with the performance but couldn't hide his disappointment after a stupid crash in the queen stage had cost him a spot in the top 5.

"I am pleased with my performance and I notice that I only lost six seconds to Tony Martin in the final flat and downhill section, " he said. "I am satisfied with my performance today but I'm still more disappointed than anything else. I should finish in the Top 5.

"However, I did well in each of the tests that I have targeted so far: the Volta a Catalunya (to get back into racing after a knee injury) , the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie. 

"Now I will take a break of three or four days before going on training camps in the Pyrenees with the team in mid-May. I will return to competition at the Bayern Rundfahrt before doing the Tour of Switzerland where I have great ambitions, the French championships and the Tour."

"In this time trial, Thibaut did much better than I thought possible," sports director Yvon Madiot said. "He beat some real specialists like Ludvigsson, Navardauskas, Dennis, Nibali, Fuglsang, Clement, Péraud and Talansky and so reached the objective of finishing in the top 10.

"This is a sign that his regular work in the discipline is paying off but the crash caused by Majka Friday really deprived him a top 5. It may be better to crash in Romandie than in July but it's still frustrating. 

"Apart from Thibaut's good performance, I can only appreciate the entire team. They did a great job throughout the week and tje time trial also shows that we were in the game since Jérémy Roy, Anthony Roux, Alexandre Géniez and Kenny Elissonde all did good times. "