{"id":822204,"date":"2026-07-24T03:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T03:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:14:10","slug":"i-guess-now-i-focus-on-gc-pidcock-says-going-into-alpe-dhuez-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822204\/","title":{"rendered":"“I guess now I focus on GC” Pidcock says going into Alpe d’Huez stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s traditional procession into Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wanted me there\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not possible to get in the break, no one wanted me there,\u201d Pidcock said. \u201cI already know from before the race that I was on people\u2019s black lists to not get in the break. I wanted to try one more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Pidcock did make it into a few breakaways. And almost won a stage<\/a>. On another, he briefly launched up the GC standings to fourth<\/a>, before dropping back down the following day. But, with that strategy now apparently exhausted after two and a half weeks of racing, it\u2019s time to pivot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess now I focus on the GC until Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s already started implementing the strategy. On Thursday, he finished with the group of race leader Tadej Poga\u010dar. While that group crossed the line 4:35 behind stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Pidcock says they hadn\u2019t sat up.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was not an easy day, but the last climb was fairly controlled I think,\u201d Pidcock said, adding he\u2019d been keepign an eye on EF\u2019s stage winner, despite him being more than eight minutes behind the Pinarello rider on GC. \u201cWhen Carapaz is up the road, I have too much respect for this guy to give him free time. You don\u2019t give him free time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pidcock\u2019s Friday exploits vaulted him up the GC. Photo: Sirotti
\nFocusing on GC?<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. By the next day, he was back down to ninth and those GC ambitions seemed to be over.<\/p>\n

After Thrursday\u2019s racing, he is just a couple handfulls away from seventh, but over three minutes away from fifth. That math could change quickly if UAE\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s stated change in tactic comes the day before the Tour returns to the iconic slopes of Alpe d\u2019Huez. That is comfortable territory for Pidcock, who won a Tour stage on the fabled switchbacks<\/a> in his Tour debut back in 2022. From a breakaway.<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s 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\u2019s tactics before Stage 12.<\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re not making any predictions about what might happen on Alpe d\u2019Huez during Stage 19. And Pidcock is in a very different position in the 2026 Tour than he was back in \u201922. We\u2019re just going to leave those two little factoids right there.<\/p>\n

And, you know, tune in to Friday\u2019s racing to see what happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock is shifting his strategy. After 18 days of chasing breakaway success at the Tour de France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[112150,169405,49,48,635,82,43201,636],"class_list":["post-822204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-tour-de-france","tag-alpe-dhuez","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tom-pidcock","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}