Seated near the front of the Palais des Congrès, where the 2020 Tour de France route was announced, Thibaut Pinot was once again watching the footage of his dramatic abandonment in this year's race. But by the time the spectator lights came on, his thoughts were firmly on the 2020 Games.

"You have to turn the page and think about something else," he said. "Obviously it was difficult; August wasn't the best month of my life. It was a big disappointment, and it was hard to accept.

Given the leaks of the past few weeks, there were few surprises when Christian Prudhomme announced the Tour route on Tuesday morning. It begins in the Alps on stage 2 and concludes with a mountainous time to La Planche des Belle Filles (a stone's throw from Pinot's birthplace of Mercy) on the final stage.

"It's a course for me, but it's not just for me. It's for all climbers, and I think it's perfect for Bernal. But it's my favorite course."

This is only the second time in Tour history that the Grande Paire has been held in Nice, meaning that the peloton will start climbing on the opening weekend. Pinot was keen on the idea that the overall classification contenders might be forced to race day after day.

"There's a climb right off the bat and then almost all the way up. There are no big gaps between ranges," Pinot said. 'Massif Central is right in the middle of the Tour. You climb right up in Nice and then you go into Massif Central before the Pyrenees and back before the Alps. That's a good thing and means every day will be a battle."

In 2019, Pinot won at the top of the Col du Tourmalet, the most frequently visited pass in the Tour. Next July's race will feature several new finishes, including the Puy Marie on stage 13. Pinot said, "It's an area I know, but I don't know much about it. 'It's a little different from the classic finals, but that's okay, I'll take it.'

Pinot has not raced since stage 19 of the 2019 Tour, when he was forced to abandon the race due to a thigh injury. The Frenchman was in fifth place overall and left the race just 20 seconds behind eventual winner Egan Bernal. He has already confirmed that he will not return to the Giro d'Italia, which he ran in 2017 and 2018, but will instead target the Tour de France in 2020.

"I'm going to start training again in November. It took me almost three weeks to heal from my injury, so I didn't get back to my normal activities until September," Pinot said. I'm off the bike now and focused on 2020."