Total madness during Pinot's farewell: "As Dutch people, we can't imagine that at all, not in the slightest"

The 2023 Tour of Lombardy was not just the edition of Tadej Pogacar, but certainly also that of Thibaut Pinot. Rows deep, French fans cheered their hero on during his last race, which might occasionally seem odd to more reserved Northern Europeans like yours truly and Pinot's Groupama-FDJ teammate, Lars van den Berg.

IDLProCycling.com caught up with Van den Berg, who finished 121st in the Race of the Falling Leaves. "It's special to be a part of this," he said about the last race of team leader Pinot. "You can sense it in everyone; they are a bit more nervous than usual. You can really feel it, especially because of all the people who are here for him. As Dutch people, we can't really imagine that at all, not in the slightest," he says with a broad smile.

"This isn't an everyday experience. There are so many people around, but he remains very calm about it," Van den Berg says about Pinot. The Dutchman believes that retiring from cycling won't be too bad for Pinot. "I think he'll be relieved once it's over. He's not really that kind of person. On one hand, he enjoys it, but on the other, he's glad when it's done. Thibaut brushes it off with a slight laugh; he's just a very down-to-earth guy. That's also why he's pretty popular."

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Van den Berg feels Tour de France helped him move forward

So, how is Van den Berg himself doing, who was surprisingly called up by Groupama-FDJ for the Tour de France? "I'm doing well. After Canada, I contracted corona, so things went downhill for a bit. However, things are improving now," he explained. He agrees with the notion that after a Tour, one always becomes one or two percent better. "The races following the Tour went extremely well. Most of the time, I felt like I had something extra in me. Contracting corona didn't help this time, but in general, things were certainly better."

Now that both Arnaud Démare and Pinot have left, there's a fresh wind blowing in the French team with the likes of Lenny Martinez and Romain Grégoire. "It's promising that we already have these young talents in our ranks. Hopefully, they will continue to progress in the coming years, and I can support them in a role with increasing experience, just as I've done with Thibaut, Madouas, and Gaudu."

Van den Berg feels comfortable at Groupama-FDJ, that much is clear. "I hope to keep doing this for several more years. I'm in the right place. In the French races, I can go for my own chances, and in the bigger races, I play a supporting role, which suits me perfectly."

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