Career
As an amateur he won 28 races before turning professional in 1999 with the Lampre–Daikin team. He won the Grand Prix d'Europa in 1999 together with his teammate Raivis Belohvoščiks and the 5th stage of the 2000 Tour de Pologne.
In 2001 he finished second in stage 15 of the Tour de France behind Belgian Rik Verbrugghe. He had surgery on his ulna in November 2001 and started training again only in February 2002. He returned to competition in April 2002.
The 2003 season brought some victories as he won the 4th stage in the Tour of the Basque Country and the King of the Mountains classification. In the Bici Vasca he crashed and broke his pelvis, forcing recuperation. He has since fully recovered. His speciality is in individual time trials.
Pinotti joined the then newly formed Spanish team Saunier Duval–Prodir team in 2005. He won the Italian National Time Trial Championship in 2005. Pinotti came second to Luca Ascani in the 2007 Italian National time trials [4] but Ascani was found to have tested positive for EPO and Pinotti was awarded the jersey. [5] Pinotti retained the title in 2008.
At the 2007 Giro d'Italia, Pinotti placed second in stage six to Spoleto and took over the leader's pink jersey. He held it for four stages. In 2008, he won the final stage time trial, and again in 2012. In 2009 and 2011, he help his teams win the team time trial. The result in 2011 helped him take over the pink jersey for one day.
In 2008, Pinotti joined team Highroad, which became Columbia HighRoad in 2009 and HTC-Columbia in 2010.
Pinotti joined the BMC Racing Team for 2012 following the disbanding of the HTC–Highroad team. [2] At the end of the year, he released a book, Il Mestiere Del Ciclista Una Vita In Bicicletta (The Cycling Professor).
In October 2013 Pinotti announced that he would retire from racing after competing in the Tour of Beijing and Chrono des Nations, transitioning to a position in the Sports Science division of BMC Racing Team. [3]
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