In a race as big as the Tour de France, there are no such things as minor targets, and if TV viewers of stage 13 were surprised to see Bahrain Victorious engaged in a tenacious pursuit of the break of the day long after any chance of a victory was possible, there was always going to be a good reason.
The reason, as Bahrain confirmed to reporters after the stage, was none other than the presence of Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) in the break, previously tenth on GC, more than 11 minutes down on yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Pidcock was in no way a threat to the very top level of Tour contenders, then. But with their rider Lenny Martinez in ninth overall at 6:34, and therefore the most vulnerable to Pidcock, the team were not prepared to let the Briton gain so much time that he would be impossible to try to remove from the GC picture later on.
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As things worked out, Pidcock finally gained 7:30 on the peloton, moving past Martinez and a host of other riders to end the day in fourth overall. He's now just 4:15 back, causing everybody in the top ten to drop down a spot - and, as sports director Enrico Gasparotto told reporters, that explained why other teams began to collaborate later in the chase, too.
"That was certainly why we did that, Pidcock was on the podium of a Grand Tour last year at the Vuelta and he's a very good rider, so we were not prepared to give him too much time, not to give him 12 or 13 minutes," Gasparotto said.
"In the end, that wouldn't have changed anything for UAE, obviously. But after we started chasing, then Red Bull and Lidl-Trek came and helped, more or less everyone came."
"In these kinds of situations, it's best to have a bit of an agreement and collaboration. If you do it that way, you probably benefit more than if everybody is doing their own thing."
The size of the break in itself was not concerning, Gasparotto said, even if Q36.5 had four riders in the move. When it came to the end of the stage, there would only be a few riders still out there. "But as ever in the Tour de France, everybody rides their own race and protects their own interests."
Overall, he said, even if Pidcock still was off the front for the finale and took third on the stage, the time gaps on GC remain more than manageable. It was, he confirmed, a case of mission accomplished.
"Definitely yes. In the end, everyone is within two and a half minutes [on GC]," he said. "That's exactly what we wanted."
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