Thibaut Pinot lined up at the Volta a Catalunya with lots of uncertainties as a knee injury had left him with very little racing in his legs. Coming away from the race with 13th place was a big relief for both himself and his team.

Thibaut PInot got his 2014 season off to a disastrous start. The French climber fell ill just before the Tour of Oman and missed the Middle East race.

Due to the missed racing, he made a late decision to include Tirreno-Adriatico in his schedule but a knee injury forced him out of the race after just a few days of racing. Hence, he lined up at the Volta a Catalunya - which had originally been his first big target of the year - with many doubts but he leaves the race as a relieved man.

Pinot finished 13th overall in a field that included the entire top 4 from last year's Tour de France and this left his sports director Yvon Madiot with a sense of satisfaction.

"Thibaut got back into the game and if we were told earlier this week that he would finish 13th, we would be okay with that as he had a difficult start to the season," he said. "Even though he did not score any WorldTour points with thirteenth place, he has performed solidly, recovered well and he was a pleasure to follow in this final stage."

Pinot showed his battling attitude on the final day which finished with 8 laps of the difficult Montjuic circuit in Barcelona. The Frenchman bridged across to Gianluca Brambilla to form a move that later also contained his teammate Jeremy Roy and fellow GC riders Wilco Kelderman, Robert Kiserlovski, and Jakob Fuglsang.

"Thibaut had good legs," Madiot said. "But the others did not want to work with him. Maybe they couldn't. Finally, the peloton caught them 4 kilometers from the finish. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) won the Tour of Catalonia but Thibaut boosted his morale. And we boosted our morale as well!"