Tom Pidcock fined 400CHF, docked 20 seconds, and eight KOM points on Tour de France stage 15

Tom Pidcock’s third day in the breakaway at the Tour de France on stage 15 ended with the Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling rider being fined a total of 400CHF, 20 seconds in the overall classification, and docked a total of eight KOM points for twice pushing off against a car on the roads to Plateau de Solaison on Sunday.

After striking gold – almost – by catapulting himself up to fourth overall after spending the day in the breakaway on stage 13 at the Tour de France, Pidcock tried it again, and again.

Pidcock could not follow the pace on the final climb, the Plateau de Solaison, and crossed the line 2:34 behind stage winner Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).

“I think I’m getting quite good at getting the breakaways. I only tried once, and I was in today — three days. Has anyone ever been in the breakaway three days in a row while being in the top ten overall? I don’t think so. Today can break loads of records, but so can I,” Pidcock said in a team release.

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He admitted the cost of such an aggressive approach on the final climb: “The last five kilometres … I was just crawling to the top. I was completely empty.”

Pidcock was also able to nab some KOM points, well until those points were removed.

At the end of the 184km stage, the commissaires’ jury penalised Pidcock for pushing against a car – twice. Each offence carried a fine of 200 CHF, a 10-second deduction from his overall time, a 4-point deduction from the KOM classification, and a 15-point deduction from the UCI ranking. In total, then, he lost 20 seconds and 8 KOM points.

On the eve of the second rest day, Pidcock is still ninth overall, 10:59 down from race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and 31 seconds from Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious). In the KOM classification, Pidcock sits in seventh place, with 28 points, to Pogačar’s 67 points. If he had kept those 8 KOM points, he would be in fourth place in that classification.

One can bet that Pidcock won’t be deterred and will try his hand again at getting into a break in the third week of racing.

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