Tom Pidcock is one of three Britons in the top 10 of this year’s Tour de France as the race takes a pause for breath in Clermont-Ferrand on the first of two rest days, and is steadily moving up the General Classification.
With Carlos Rodríguez fourth and Pidcock seventh, Ineos Grenadiers are the only team with two riders in the Tour’s top 10. And Pidcock, who finished 43 seconds behind the defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard, in Sunday’s mountain finish on the Puy de Dôme, says he is relishing a new challenge. The 23-year-old Yorkshireman, a stage winner at Alpe d’Huez in last year’s Tour, is gradually transitioning from opportunist to contender while bringing renewed focus to an Ineos team that was suffering from a sense of drift.
“I’m kind of enjoying it, especially as I’m getting a bit better,” said Pidcock, winner of this year’s Italian classic, the Strade Bianche. “I’m improving and staying nearer the front. It’s motivating me. Before, if you’d said ‘[you’re] racing for top 10’, I wouldn’t really be so bothered, but now I’m enjoying the challenge.
“The patience and the focus it requires for three weeks, riding for GC [general classification], is not really in my characteristics. Thinking about it, it’s my first time riding GC with the pros in a proper stage race. So it’s all new.”
Pidcock’s Tour got off to an uncertain start, with a loss of time on the opening weekend immediately setting him back. Asked at the start of stage five in Pau, when he thought Pidcock would be ready to assume leadership responsibilities, the Ineos sports director, Steve Cummings, said: “Good question.”
“The first day was not how I’d hoped,” Pidcock said, “but in general it’s gone pretty well, with each day growing in confidence, exploring my limits.”
Pidcock described his performance on the Puy de Dôme as “a great day”, adding: “If I can replicate that again, that’s fantastic. These next two weeks there are some pretty tough days ahead, back-to-back days as well, with three days in the Alps, so it’s going to be a big test.”
The Tour’s final week of climbing and descending will be the acid test of Pidcock’s resilience. Gruelling stage finishes in Morzine, Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc and Courchevel, will create even bigger gaps in the peloton.
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“Week three is where cracks start to show and my goal is to be consistent,” Pidcock said. “In my head, that’s becoming more of a challenge and a target to see where I can go on GC. I can learn a lot about myself if I fully commit to GC.”
While Pidcock’s trajectory is steadily upwards, teammate Egan Bernal, winner of the Tour in 2019, is now in 31st place. The Colombian, who suffered life-threatening injuries 18 months ago in a training crash, is now devoting himself to Pidcock’s cause. “It’s incredibly impressive,” Pidcock said. “Egan had a bit of a free role, but now he’s not [involved] in GC and he’s immediately switched to helping me and Carlos. It’s really an honour that a guy like him puts 100% into me and Carlos. He could easily have said: ‘Fuck this, this is not what I want’.”
While Pidcock adjusts to racing for a top-five finish, the Yates twins, Adam and Simon, are also handily placed in fifth and sixth respectively. Adam, who spent four days in the yellow jersey, remains in contention for a high finish, while Simon is five seconds behind his brother. This despite a crash on stage eight, minutes from the finish line in Limoges on Saturday. The fall was provoked by a spectator taking a photograph and Yates carried on racing, despite pain in his pelvis from the impact.
