Tom Pidcock’s analysis of his race to the summit of Puy de Dôme was as effective and interesting as his performance.
The Ineos Grenadier rider is on a steep Grand Tour learning curve in this year’s Tour de France and he handled the steep slopes of the Puy de Dôme impressively.
He was part of the big-rider selection as the steepest gradients began and then fought to limit his losses to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) as they duelled for every second.
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Pidcock finished 51 seconds down on Pogačar and 43 behind Vingegaard but he finished with Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and nine seconds ahead of his teammate and fellow GC rider Carlos Rodriguez. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and everyone else lost more time, meaning that Pidcock moved up from ninth to seventh overall, 5:26 down on Vingegaard.
After some good and bad days so far in the Tour de France, Pidcock described stage 9 as a good day and another vital lesson in Grand Tour racing.
“Carlos and I are both young guys learning as much as we can. We’re in a different place in our careers to the other guys as we ride GC,” Pidcock told Cyclingnews and Cycling Weekly after warming down in the shadow of the Ineos Grenadiers team bus.
“Each day I’m getting strong and more confident. It’s all kind of new to me, I've never really been in the GC in a Grand Tour or any major stage race, so I'm learning every day.”
“Finishing fourth of the GC guys is great but no one will remember that in a few days, will they?”
Pidcock was there when Pogačar attacked Vingegaard in the final kilometres of the Puy de Dôme. He had a front seat to watch and learn.
“It’s nice to be at the front of the race and at least now ‘see’ the attack of those two,” he said jokingly.
“It’s impressive when we’re already riding at threshold and then they sprint off more for a minute. It’s impressive.”
The higher Pidcock climbs in the overall classification, the more he is condemned to try to fight to stay there. But such is his desire to also win stages that only a top five is truly worth fighting for.
“If I’m doing this well, then I’m happy to stay there, even if that means I can’t get a stage win. If I can try to fight for top five on GC, that motivates but if I'm tenth or ninth, I don’t really care about that,” Pidcock explained honestly.
“I seem to be getting better with every GC day, so long may it continue. But I also want to win a stage and get my hands in the air, that’s what motivates me but we’ll see how it goes.”
