By the end of Thibaut Pinot's last Giro d'Italia, he could no longer stand on his own two feet and was coughing up blood. It was May 26, 2018, the penultimate stage of the Giro. At the finish atop Cervinia, the French climber passed out. How many seconds did he remain unconscious? No one remembers exactly, but panic rose high up there in the mountains.
His temperature reached 40°C, and he coughed a dry cough that made his eyes blink. He was eventually taken away in a Red Cross vehicle that took over an hour to make its way through traffic. His team's statement simply mentioned “dehydration” and “fever”, but he was, in fact, suffering from pneumonia.
