Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) continued his success at this year`s Vuelta a Espaņa as the French climber racked up his second stage victory and his country`s fifth Friday during the stage 19 summit finish. Already the winner on the Vuelta`s toughest summit finish at the Lagos de Covadonga, less than a week later on the Coll de la Rabassa Pinot broke away with LottoNL-Jumbo duo Steven Kruijswijk and George Bennett, shortly after Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) had briefly gone clear. But when race leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) subsequently got across and opened up the throttle, Pinot was the only rider who looked comfortable handling the Briton`s pace, to the point when he could then put forth a late attack to win stage 19.ADVERTISEMENT With two superb mountain-top victories in the Vuelta, Pinot has also, unintentionally, provided French national trainer Cyrille Guimard with the kind of problem that other nations would envy: multiple riders could be considered leader of the French team in the fast-approaching UCI Road World Championships. Having won the recent Tour of Britain, and now leading in the Tour of Slovakia, Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) is clearly in top form this autumn. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) is also in the running for protected-rider status. But in the Vuelta, Pinot is firing on all cylinders, too. `This is the icing on the cake. I didn`t think that I would do it. I wasn`t feeling good on Wednesday [the Balcon de Bizkaia summit finish], but I found my legs again,` Pinot said afterwards.
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