Thibaut Pinot announced his retirement at the end of this season in an interview with L'Equipe magazine.

"I am excited about the new things I will discover later in my career, but I am equally excited about racing in this last year."

The charismatic Frenchman finished on the podium behind Vincenzo Nibali and Jean-Christophe Peraud at the 2014 Tour de France, giving his home country hope of regaining the top spot in the Grand Tour. However, Pinot was plagued by illness and injury; he was third overall in the 2018 Giro d'Italia when he became ill, abandoned the race, and was hospitalized for dehydration.

In the 2019 Tour, Pinot was in contention for the overall win, but a leg injury forced him to tearfully abandon the race in the Alps on stage 19. Since then, he has revitalized the race by bringing in stage hunts and breakaways, winning the most aggressive rider award on stage 9 of last season's Tour de France. [He won the most aggressive rider award on stage 9 of the Tour de France last season. 'I've rarely been so motivated at the start of a season, and I want to finish on a high. I'm doing and will continue to do everything in my power to achieve the best possible result."

The Frenchman's career has been a series of highs and lows, with triumphs and agonizing defeats in the mountains along with emotions that reach viewers through the television screen.

In the 2012 Tour de France, he attacked on stage 8, the Col de la Croix, with fellow Frenchman Tony Gallopin, and rode 10 km solo to victory. He finished the Tour in 10th place overall.

After finishing seventh overall at the 2013 Vuelta a España, Pinot returned to the Tour de France to try for GC at La Planche des Belle Filles; he moved into second place in the third week, but fell to third in the time trial. In Paris, however, he and compatriot Perrault made the podium, marking the historic achievement of the first Frenchman on the podium in 18 years.

In 2015, Pinot won the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse at the top of the Rettenbach Glacier, taking the lead, but slipped from the podium to fourth place in the final time trial. Although his Tour GC challenge did not materialize, Pinot won the stage to the Alpe d'Huez ahead of Nairo Quintana.

Pinot worked to improve his time trial in 2016, and he showed it by winning the final mountain stage, the time trial of the Criterium International in Porto Vecchio. He won the Tour de Romandie time trial, a stage win at the Criterium du Dauphiné, and the French time trial title, making him a strong contender for the Tour de France. However, once again illness prevented him from achieving results, and he retired with bronchitis before stage 13 and also missed the Olympics.

The following year, Pinot competed in the Giro d'Italia, finishing third in the final stage, 43 seconds behind Quintana, but was eliminated from contention when Tom Dumoulin won the overall in the final time trial.

In 2018, Pinot overcame the disappointment of the Giro d'Italia with a podium at the Tour de Pollogne and a stage win at the Vuelta, and won Milan-Torino and Il Lombardia at the end of the season.

In the 2019 Tour de France, he took a storming stage win at the Col du Tourmalet, but he had not yet finished the Grand Tour. After the pandemic interrupted his 2020 season, Pinot finished second in the rescheduled Criterium du Dauphiné, then was involved in a group crash on a rain-soaked road in the opening stage of the Tour in Nice, injuring his back.

Pinot struggled despite the injury and finished an unremarkable 29th, but the injury kept him out of the Vuelta; in 2021 he was scheduled to compete in the Giro d'Italia, but again was ruled out due to a back injury and also missed the Tour de France.

Pinot's results were also lackluster in early 2022, when he was caught and dropped by Miguel Angel Lopez in the last kilometer of the Carls am Grossglockner mountain finish and cried out for a stage win at the Tour de l'Alps. However, he made up for it by winning the final stage.

He also won a stage at the Tour de Suisse, but supported his younger teammate David Gault at the Tour de France.

Pinot told L'Equipe that his decision to retire was due to a back injury in 2021.

"That's when I realized it was getting difficult, that I was starting to get old. I thought about quitting a couple of times."

"I was a little bit afraid that I was going to have to retire," he said.

"If you go back a little bit, I was also starting to have thoughts during lockdown. That was the first time I had the impression that I was myself. In inverted commas, it was a forced vacation, no stress, no pressure, no competition here and there. From that moment on, I began to ask myself questions about the fact that I was living at 1,000 km/h and not making the most of certain moments.

"Almost immediately after the lockdown, I was injured. For the first time since I was a little kid, the pressure of constantly thinking about the bike was gone. Lockdown made sure I enjoyed life after cycling. I had a taster."

Pinot intends to dedicate his life after cycling to farming. He said, "Cycling has taken up a third of my life, so now I want to devote myself to my second passion, animals and nature. Making honey, growing fruits and vegetables, and seeing what animals can give us."