Tom Pidcock is shifting his strategy. After 18 days of chasing breakaway success at the Tour de France he is, allegedly, switching his focus to GC. With three days of racing left. Well, two days of real racing, if you remove Sunday’s traditional procession into Paris.

“No one wanted me there”

The Pinarello Q36.5 rider told Eurosport of the change in tactics after a day where the Briton says he felt unwelcome when he tried to make his way into the breakaway.

“It was not possible to get in the break, no one wanted me there,” Pidcock said. “I already know from before the race that I was on people’s black lists to not get in the break. I wanted to try one more time.”

Now, Pidcock did make it into a few breakaways. And almost won a stage. On another, he briefly launched up the GC standings to fourth, before dropping back down the following day. But, with that strategy now apparently exhausted after two and a half weeks of racing, it’s time to pivot.

“I guess now I focus on the GC until Paris.”

Pidcock’s already started implementing the strategy. On Thursday, he finished with the group of race leader Tadej Pogačar. While that group crossed the line 4:35 behind stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Pidcock says they hadn’t sat up.

“Today was not an easy day, but the last climb was fairly controlled I think,” Pidcock said, adding he’d been keepign an eye on EF’s stage winner, despite him being more than eight minutes behind the Pinarello rider on GC. “When Carapaz is up the road, I have too much respect for this guy to give him free time. You don’t give him free time.”

Pidcock’s Friday exploits vaulted him up the GC. Photo: Sirotti
Focusing on GC?

Pidcock currently sits eighth overall at the Tour de France. He did, briefly, rank as high as fourth overall. But that was only for a single day when, from a breakaway, he vaulted up the rankings. By the next day, he was back down to ninth and those GC ambitions seemed to be over.

After Thrursday’s racing, he is just a couple handfulls away from seventh, but over three minutes away from fifth. That math could change quickly if UAE’s illness nightmare gets any worse. But is Pidcock really looking to move up to seventh? Or sixth? Does he see more GC riders struggling with illness than the rest of the media has notices? How high up could the wiley Brit climb?

Pidcock’s stated change in tactic comes the day before the Tour returns to the iconic slopes of Alpe d’Huez. That is comfortable territory for Pidcock, who won a Tour stage on the fabled switchbacks in his Tour debut back in 2022. From a breakaway.

Pidcock’s stated change in tactics also comes a few days after a smiling Mads Pedersen was politely called out by an SBS Sport reporter for bluffing about his team’s tactics before Stage 12.

Now, we’re not making any predictions about what might happen on Alpe d’Huez during Stage 19. And Pidcock is in a very different position in the 2026 Tour than he was back in ’22. We’re just going to leave those two little factoids right there.

And, you know, tune in to Friday’s racing to see what happens.