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, Tom Pidcock tried it again, and again.
But it was to no avail. On stage 14, he was dropped from the main GC group on the final climb, losing nearly three minutes and slipping to ninth overall.
Determined to try again, Pidcock once again forced his way into stage 15’s decisive 23-rider breakaway, which included his teammate Brent van Moer, who worked hard at the front on the approach Col de la Croissette, moving Pidcock briefly into virtual fourth on GC. But the break splintered on the tough climb, leaving the Briton to chase a solo rider off the front while behind the GC riders were coming fast.
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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.
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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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