Thibaut Pinot's GC hopes after a near-miss in last year's Tour de France were decisively dashed on Saturday's stage 8.

Pinot blamed the crushing defeat on a back injury he suffered when he crashed in the last 3km of last weekend's first stage in Nice.

Although there were no further injuries during the first week, there were reports that his back required up to three hours of therapy a day. On Saturday's Porte de Valles (the first horseback-like climb of the race), he was seen repeatedly stretching his back and struggling with pain.

Despite being surrounded by his teammates, Pinot was unable to contain the damage and slid unceremoniously to the back of the pack, falling away from the GC frontrunners and out of this year's Tour GC field.

"My back was hurting, I couldn't pedal," Pinot told French television at the finish. The Tour is not over yet. I never thought about quitting, but it has been a very complicated year." [I want to apologize to my teammates and all the people who have supported me. Maybe this is a turning point in my career. I've always said that racing is what I enjoy. This was too big for me."

Pinot insisted that while his options at the Tour are centered on stage wins, he is not finished.

"The team is very strong and I pray we can win one," he concluded.

Pinot's first Tour success came in 2012, when he won a stage in the Jura.

Third place overall followed in 2014, and in 2015 he won the Alpe d'Huez.

After finishing fourth in the 2017 Giro d'Italia, Pinot abandoned the Tour later that year. Then in 2018, with a podium finish in sight, he fell ill again and abandoned the Giro. He won two races at the Vuelta a España in September of the same year, but retired from the 2019 Tour with a thigh injury in the Alps after a brilliant run in the Pyrenees.

It remains to be seen how Pinot will fare in the rest of this year's Tour, but his hopes of finally making it to GC in his home race have been put away for another season.