Pinot looms large in picture

Brioude, France

Like a lost love, the Tour de France gains in value for riders who can't race in it.

That was the lesson Thibaut Pinot learned last year when the French rider, who'd fallen sick at the Giro d'Italia in May, then missed the Tour and watched on TV as others wrote history at cycling's showcase race.

"It was no fun," he recalls. "I realized how important the Tour is for a French rider."

This year, he's making amends.

With the race shifting its attention to the toughest climbs to come in the Pyrenees and Alps, Pinot is among the top competitors for overall victory in Paris on July 28.

With no Tour winner for French fans to cheer for since Bernard Hinault in 1985, Pinot is third overall and heads into the Tour's second week looking like France's most credible contender in years.

Unlike Julian Alaphilippe, the yellow-jersey wearer from France who wowed in week one but who is dreading the high-altitude ascents, Pinot is looking forward to them.

"That's where I get the most pleasure," he said Sunday before the start of Stage 9, a hilly trek through the Massif Central mountains won by South African Daryl Impey, while Pinot and all the other top racers took it easy behind, saving their strength.

Pinot excelled with the Groupama-FDJ squad in the Stage 2 team time trial, losing only 12 seconds to defending champion Geraint Thomas and his teammates at Ineos. That performance raised French hopes that Pinot might also be able to also limit damage in the individual time trial, upcoming on Stage 13 and where former track specialist Thomas should excel.

"Thomas will take back time," Pinot said.

But it is anyone's guess as to which of them will get the upper hand on the climbs. On Stage 6, the first mountain stage, Thomas couldn't seriously distance Pinot, who rode in...