Pinot Wins, Madiot Roars

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) won today’s stage of the Tour de France. The youngest rider in the race, he delighted French fans with a big win to confirm the hopes invested in him. But there was nobody more delighted than team manager Marc Madiot.

If the video doesn’t work then here’s the image of the day:
Pinot Madio tour de france

31 thoughts on “Pinot Wins, Madiot Roars”

  4. Forget Madiot, how about a video of Wiggins wigging out and calling folks (journos? Bloggers? Inrng?) who wonder about doping on the Tour, “fucking wankers” and “cunts”?
    Me thinks lady-Wiggins doth protest too much!

  5. He was screaming so furious he changed the wind direction in Pinot’s favour. If Pinot is the youngest then this is history isn’t it?

    • The point is Bradley Wiggins was one of those potential skeptics — before he suddenly morphed from a track rider to a bona fide TdF contender. Now all is different, and if you question doping he has gone from understanding you to calling you a “cunt.” What a class act.
      Looks like he might have also banned inrng from his twitter account, fyi. Which is a bit much considering how diplomatic and nuanced the pieces are on this site.

      • Concur. Good Points. Ala shoe is on the other foot.

        For some reactionary Yank’s, like myself, the emotional freudian vitriol has me concluding Bradley WiggingOut as fine example of the accomplished “pissy brit” of notoriety with thinning skin disorder. Fun TdF 2012, eh?

  8. Oliver, I completely take your point about being skeptical though I don’t believe he has morphed that quickly, as brilliant a track cyclist he got lucky with his initial GC success and that has made his progress look more rapid that it really was. Calling anyone skeptical, a c*** is definitely not in any PR manual for anyone wanting to be loved.

    Has he not just become a classic politician? Now that he is there to be ‘shot at’ he’s trying to keep everyone in the peloton (including reformed and current dopers) on side just in case he needs their help at probably his only chance of winning the TdF. I don’t agree with this stance (if I am any where near correct) but assuming he is clean why else temper your anti-doping message when he must know the criticism that is bound to come his way given cycling’s rampant doping past. Anyone else thought this as well?

    • Gowers,

      I just don’t understand why now, he is unwilling to criticize dopers, tainted doctors and the like…. he used to be go well beyond the standard “I have never been caught” line. But then again, he used to be ride for Garmin.
      I think that if he were really clean, he would have no need to be so aggressive and rude in regards to questions about doping. Why is he so defensive? It makes no sense unless he too, has something to hide.

      • Or he hates daft press questions, what is he meant to say, he is being setup to issue a denial and when he does so in the eyes of twitter that just proves that he doped. He is in a no win situation with questions like that. He reminds me of Andy Murray in his attitude to the media, excellently analysed by charlie brooker in today’s Guardian http://bit.ly/NgqVOj

      • Maybe not everyone is quite so ambivalent and calm about it as you would be?

        Knowing my own personality, I’m fairly certain that if people were constantly harping on about me in that way, I’d punch someone in the face, let alone call them a c**t.

        • Also i think its the specific things that are being thrown at him, eg people on Twitter calling them UK Postal and this sort of thing. I think there were certain things and certain people who write blogs and things that just make up rumours to which he was referring. For example there was a blog recently that made up a rumour that Sky had given money to ASO, which turned out to be rubbish.

          Also on the point of press idiocy, apparently someone asked him why he had the red, white and blue stripes around his jersey arms. He replied that it was because he loved Thomas Voeckler. I dont think that is a very well researched journalist.

      • I’m not really sure he has changed tact; as illustrated by the remarks about millars BOA ban; http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/16414621

        Several people have been quick to comment on this, referencing wiggins having a more out spoken attitude in the past; ie with the implication that he is no longer willing to shout everyone else down, therefore he must be doped. I dare say that this would quickly become tiresome to anyone, particularly since the birth of twitter, as now those skeptics are given an omnipresent voice.

        On a personal note, its been interesting to see the power files of some of the top riders published, and to be frank, they are not other worldly, nor are the average speeds VAMs etc, and I wish that this was taken into account more often. While still unconvinced that the sport is where it should be, this at least suggests that things are moving in the right defection.

  9. what a great stage and hats off to all the riders that made the front, certainly Cadel was itching to get going and Nibali did well to hang in there (but given his proven skills at descending I was surprised he didn’t push on and chose to stay with the pack?)

    Sky did a great job of delivering Wiggins and hats off to Wiggins for for calling a spade a spade … if you’re going to lob 140 character word grenades at strangers, be ready for the blowback fi the strangers you’re vilifying don’t like what you throw at them …

    really, why should he be politically correct about it? no real reason, and please don’t throw the old “but he’s a sportsman and role model” chestnut up there? he’s riding his guts out and some guy whose tinfoil hat fell off today attacks him verbally, i say good for him in letting his anger out, people should simply mind their P’s & Q’s, even when anonymous … it’s simple courtesy …

    now don’t get me started on Andy Schleck!! … just kidding …

  10. I think it’s safe to say that all the best are on there limit all the time emotionally and physically ,he’s actually been some what out of character with his pleasent demener so far,just loved that velo news could quote “wanker” on air priceless
    I am English and do not give one shit about beckham and the English soccer team or Andy Murray ,but I have never wanted a British sportsmen to win anything more than when I saw Linford Christie line up for the 100 meters final in 92

    • I agree.

      There is being disgruntled, and then there is handling it with class.

      A lot of people have lobbed grenades over Cadel Evans’ mental fragility from his run-ins with the media (cue the poor dog being stepped on!) but Wiggins has lost the plot; to give that sort of response to effectively an ‘unknown’ enemy, faceless keyboard warriors, shows he is affected by it.

      Generally, you wouldn’t afford critics the airtime in responding, but to go off at 11 like he did to something as trivial as some Twitter abuse shows me that he can get easily unhinged despite the strength of the Sky cocoon.

      • Yes, I think we just saw a chink in the mental armor with this display. This is not a man fully in control of himself. Now, to have the other teams take advantage later on…

  12. Does Wiggins still publish all of his data the way he did in his Garmin days?

    I remember there was an article on him and Vande Velds results from the tour and the general consensus was that their blood profile behaved in a manner one would expect from three weeks of hard racing.

  13. Can I just say that I really, really enjoyed Sunday’s stage? Attacking racing, beautiful scenery, a tense finale, a worthy young stage winner, and GC contenders looking for advantage everywhere they can find it, both by working together to stay away from the pretenders and by attacking on the flat run-in to the finish.

  15. Watching Madiot’s happiness and excitment was one of the best sports images in a long time. Somewhere in this Madiot morphed from a coach into a fan; someone who was just happy to see his player win.

Comments are closed.