Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) got the perfect confidence boost for Il Lombardia, his final big goal of the season, when he won today’s very hard first stage of the Tour du Gevaudan. On the 6km climb to the finish, it came down to an uphill sprint from a French quartet and here the FDJ captain narrowly held off Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) to take both the stage win and the leader’s jersey.

At the start of the year, Thibaut Pinot made it clear that he had one big desire for 2015: to win races again. He may have come up short in his GC quest at the Tour but when it comes to wins, he has been hugely successful.

Pinot won the queen stages in both the Tours de Romandie and Suisse and he conquered Alpe d’Huez in the Tour de France. Now he has made Il Lombardia his final big goal of the year and today he continued his winning trend by taking the first stage of his final preparation race, the Tour du Gevaudan, thus boosting his confidence for the big target.

"We rode to control the breakaway," he told Directvelo. "The legs were pretty good, so we upped the pace a bit on the second climb. Arnold (Jeanneson) and Kenny (Elissonde) did a big job. Each rider has fulfilled his role. When Romain Bardet attacked on the climb, I did not go because I wanted to stay with Kenny. I told him to continue at a good pace. We were riding very fast. We knew it was going to be complicated to get away.

"Kenny rode until two kilometers from the finish. When he was gone, we watched each other a lot. Stéphane Rossetto and Thomas Voeckler were strong. For Thomas, his presence in the group showed he is fit. He proved that last week in Montreal, where he made a great showing.

"It was a nice sprint. I did not want to let go after the work of the team. I'm happy to win a summit finish, because this is my specialty. This is my fourth success in a summit finish this year. It's good to prepare for the Tour of Lombardy.

"It will be tricky tomorrow. Now I know my opponents, namely Stéphane Rossetto and Thomas Voeckler. When Thomas is in the same time as you, you have to be wary. He knows the race well. 

"The legs were good for me today. That was my first effort in a racing on a big mountain for a month. I did not know where I was."