{"id":711453,"date":"2026-07-26T04:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T04:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/711453\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T04:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T04:01:14","slug":"i-would-have-signed-for-that-coming-into-this-race-tom-pidcock-set-to-achieve-best-result-at-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/711453\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I would have signed for that coming into this race’ \u2013 Tom Pidcock set to achieve best result at Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Pidcock<\/a> took a moment to compose himself as he reached his team after the finish line of Alpe d’Huez on stage 20 of the Tour de France.<\/a> The man from Leeds, distinctive in his Red Bull<\/a> helmet, covered his face with a blue towel, and listened as his soigneur held his face and geed him up, made him realise what he’d just achieved.<\/p>\n

Unlike the previous day<\/a>, this was not a completely emptied Pidcock, but one satisfied with his achievement of all but sealing ninth place at the world’s biggest bike race.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Pinarello Q36.5<\/a> rider finished 16th on Saturday, 9:03 behind stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)<\/a>, but defended his overall place, taking time on 10th-placed Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies). It means, barring disaster, Pidcock will achieve his first ever top 10 result at the Tour.<\/p>\n

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Pidcock has had a combative race, twice finishing third on stages, but did not quite get over the line for his second stage victory. However, a second Grand Tour top 10, and a first at the Tour, satisfied both the 26-year-old and his team.<\/p>\n

“I think I’m very happy,” he said after finishing atop Alpe d’Huez for a second day in a row. “I think top 10 in the Tour, I can be very proud of. Of course, I’m ambitious, I look forward to next year to try and improve it. For now, I can be very happy. It has been an unbelievably hard race. I don’t know if the race tomorrow is neutralised, but I hope it’s neutralised.”<\/p>\n

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Asked how difficult the day was, he replied: “From the first climb… the first 20 minutes we went so hard, I thought it was going to be a fucking long day.”<\/p>\n

Pidcock did not have an ideal run-up to the Tour, with illness forcing him to skip the Tour de Suisse, and seemingly affecting his training as well.<\/p>\n

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“I would have signed for that [ninth] coming into this race, knowing the disruption I had in the lead up here, I can be very happy,” he continued. “I’m ambitious, I look forward to next year, I’m already thinking about things I can improve on to get a better result and be close to these other guys, but for now I can be happy.”<\/p>\n

There is the small matter of the final stage in Paris on Sunday, which on paper could suit a rider like Pidcock, although the course might not be hard enough. However, in reality, it has come at the end of a hard race.<\/p>\n

“First of all, we go to the race and see how it is,” he said. “I look forward to the finish line to be honest.”<\/p>\n

Having finished top 10 at the Tour, on top of his third place at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a last season<\/a>, Pidcock now knows where there are gains to be made: “When I’m in my best shape I have consistency, and I didn’t have that coming into this. That’s what I missed I think, consistently working and getting better every training session. That’s good for me.”<\/p>\n

For now, though, there are 89 kilometres in between Pidcock and a well-earned rest \u2013 not a beer though, he is not a fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock took a moment to compose himself as he reached his team after the finish line of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-711453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}