[4] Once considered one of the most promising talents in French cycling, he finished third overall in the 2014 Tour de France and first in the young rider classification.

[10] He then finished second to Sylvain Georges in his next start, at the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, winning the mountains and young rider classifications.

[14][15] At the end of the month, he soloed to an opening stage victory at the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, where he then held on to the overall lead of the race until its conclusion three days later.

[18] He took a prestigious victory on the eighth stage from Belfort to Porrentruy, which comprised seven categorized climbs including the Category 1 Col de la Croix, where he passed Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) shortly before the summit,[19] with 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) remaining.

He then negotiated the descent and the flat portion of road, holding on to a lead of 26 seconds over the chasing group – which included some of the Tour's general classification contenders – despite a headwind and while being frantically encouraged by his team manager, Marc Madiot.

In the second week of the race, Pinot had problems with a sore throat and also admitted he was struggling on the descents, having a fear of speed.

Having finished sixth at the Tour de l'Ain, Pinot looked to redeem himself in the Vuelta a España, and got better throughout the race, moving into the top ten overall ahead of the first rest day.

[32] At the Tour de France, Pinot won the white jersey for being the best young rider and finished in third place in the final general classification, behind Vincenzo Nibali (1st) and Jean-Christophe Péraud (2nd).

He won the queen stage of the race with seven seconds of an advantage over his nearest pursuer, Ilnur Zakarin of Team Katusha.

[40] He held the race lead by 34 seconds going into the final stage, a 38.4-kilometre (23.9-mile) individual time trial that started and finished in Bern.

[41] However, he lost at least a minute to his closest challengers Geraint Thomas and Simon Špilak, and also fell behind Tom Dumoulin to finish in fourth place overall.

[43] He competed in the warm-up event for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the International Road Cycling Challenge in Rio de Janeiro, where he finished in sixth position.

[49] At Critérium International, Pinot won a 7-kilometre (4.3-mile) individual time trial around Porto-Vecchio to take the race lead, before winning the final stage the following day, a summit finish on the Col de l'Ospedale [fr].

[52] He out-sprinted Romain Bardet to win a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné at the ski resort of Méribel,[53] and he also won the French National Time Trial Championships,[54] ahead of the Tour de France.

[49] The first win of Pinot's 2017 campaign came at the Vuelta a Andalucía, as he rode past Alberto Contador in the final hundred metres of the second stage.

[86] Unable to fully recover from the fatigue and pneumonia suffered during the Giro d'Italia, Pinot's Groupama–FDJ team announced that he would not ride the Tour de France.

[93] He attacked with approximately 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) remaining, soloing clear to a 28-second victory over his closest competitor, Miguel Ángel López, giving him stage wins at all three Grand Tours.

He worked his way back up the general classification, and won stage 14, which finished on the Col du Tourmalet,[103] and according to The Guardian, Pinot was seen to be the biggest rival to the Team Ineos pairing of Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas.

[110] He struggled with back issues during the Tour de France, following a crash on the opening stage, losing 25 minutes in the general classification,[111] prior to the first rest day.

[113] However, his back injury from 2020 was continuing to effect his progress as he recorded only one top-ten race finish in the first few months of the season, with eighth at the Ardèche Classic.

[118] Having finished in the top ten overall at March's Tirreno–Adriatico (in eighth place),[119] Pinot's first success in almost three years came the following month, winning the final stage of the 2022 Tour of the Alps; having finished second to Miguel Ángel López the previous day, Pinot got the better of David de la Cruz in the closing stages in Lienz.

[130] Pinot regained the classification lead on a shortened stage 13,[131] which was reduced to approximately 75 kilometres (47 miles) and entirely held in Switzerland, due to safety concerns.

[133] In the final two mountain stages, Pinot worked his way up from seventh overall to a fifth-place overall finish in Rome; he was 5 minutes, 43 seconds down on race winner Primož Roglič.