Tom Pidcock is famous for his blisteringly fast late accelerations on summit finishes, and the Q36.5 certainly was able to produce a memorable turn of speed at the summit of Alto de El Morredero in the Vuelta a España on Wednesday.
However, with Guilio Pellizzari (Red-Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) already 16 seconds up the road at the finish after a late attack, TV cameras certainly showed Pidcock blazing round the final right-hand bend at the summit - but the stage victory remained out of reach.
Currently running third overall, 2:28 down on overall leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pidcock is usually fond of lighting things up on a climb whenever and wherever he can.
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But as he said afterwards, with the top GC position a very real possibility in Madrid, the Briton has now opted for a change of strategy in the third week of the Vuelta that - for the first time in his career - sees him definitively putting fighting for the overall as his top priority.
"That's the sacrifice you make when you're racing for the podium, I sacrificed the stage," Pidcock told Eurosport afterwards.
"It could have been nice [to go for the win], but racing for the podium is the main goal. You have to make those decisions, I guess."
"We were all alone apart from the Bora boys, and they showed it so well done to them."
Pidcock was effectively somewhat hamstrung by the presence of Bora's Jai Hindley in the chasing group of five behind Pellizzari. Whenever he or Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) tried to make a move, Hindley clamped down on their effort very quickly.
Making attacks in the very strong headwind might well have proved fruitless in any case, but the net result was that Pidcock could claim second at the summit finish, slightly gapping both Hindley, who took third, as well as the two riders ahead of him overall.
Given the stalemate at the summit of the Alto de el Morredero and the seeming near-equality between all the main favourites, for Pidcock as for the rest, then, the crunch test of the Vuelta will likely be the time trial in Valladolid.
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