Lack of eating dents Tom Pidcock’s Tour de France GC challenge
Ineos Grenadiers co-leader says he was "cooked" as he hemorrhaged time in the Alps
![Tom Pidcock struggles at the 2023 Tour de France](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/EZRU5PXuwJ6pjrZauqtxPe-415-80.jpg)
The Tour de France giveth and the Tour de France taketh away. While Ineos Grenadiers co-leader Carlos Rodríguez was busy steaming into Morzine with his hands in the air and a smile on his face Tom Pidcock, who had started the day just four places further back on GC, was labouring and desperately trying to minimise his losses.
The Yorkshireman had been distanced by the furious pace of the GC group on the slopes of the Col de la Ramaz, the penultimate mountain of the day, and fought along the valley, up the Col de Joux Plane and down the other side.
He eventually finished 8-40 behind his team-mate and stage winner Rodríguez, dropping to 11th on GC in the process.
“It was very hard day,” he said. “Is a shame really I was full of confidence this morning I envisioned doing this epic attack over the top of the Col de Joux Plane and we started full gas and I just didn't really have it in me.”
Pidcock had good reason to feel that confidence in the morning. The day before he was the best placed rider of the gaggle of GC battlers behind the top two and the Leeds native has been setting some of his best climbing performances ever in this Tour de France.
Notably the viciously steep slopes of the Puy de Dôme had shown him to be among the be.
But the tests where Pidcock has impressed have been of a different character to the 151km test across five alpine ascents that stage 14 presented.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Pidcock declined to lean on that as an excuse when it was offered to him. “I need to evaluate a little bit, but I think I just didn't have enough energy,” he said. “Yesterday was a late stage, a late dinner and I just couldn't really eat enough it wasn't complicated.”
Describing the part of his race after he was dropped he said: “I though maybe I could save a bit over Ramaz and maybe come back but I was just cooked. Then I took my radio out so as I came back to the bus everyone was saying congratulations and I was thinking 'what is everyone saying congratulations for?' before I found out thaat Carlos won. That made it [the day] a bit better,” he said, a smile breaking across his face.
Given Pidcock’s propensity for riding aggressively and having fallen out of the top 10 there is a case for unleashing the Yorkshireman to chase stage wins.
However, Ineos Grenadiers deputy team principal Rod Ellingworth seemed to think that would be unwise. “The original plan was to not come out of the GC fight,” he said. “He has got to put himself in the place where he’s getting stretched like he was today.”
Ellingworth emphasised that there really weren’t any downsides to doing so. “What I've always said is that these two guys [Pidcock and Rodríguez] can’t fail because every day they have, they learn. Tom has lost time but he can't fail, it’s just about learning for the future.”
While the Tour de France does taketh away, perhaps for Pidcock, on this occasion, even that is giving him something.
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Having trained as a journalist at Cardiff University I spent eight years working as a business journalist covering everything from social care, to construction to the legal profession and riding my bike at the weekends and evenings. When a friend told me Cycling Weekly was looking for a news editor, I didn't give myself much chance of landing the role, but I did and joined the publication in 2016. Since then I've covered Tours de France, World Championships, hour records, spring classics and races in the Middle East. On top of that, since becoming features editor in 2017 I've also been lucky enough to get myself sent to ride my bike for magazine pieces in Portugal and across the UK. They've all been fun but I have an enduring passion for covering the national track championships. It might not be the most glamorous but it's got a real community feeling to it.
-
Primož Roglič reveals he suffered back fracture in Tour de France crash
Slovenian abandoned race after being caught up in crash on stage 12, Vuelta a España participation now in doubt
By Tom Thewlis Published
-
Paris 2024 Olympics time trials: Everything you need to know
Information about the course, timings, favourites, startlists and TV channels for the individual time trials
By Tom Davidson Published
-
Primož Roglič reveals he suffered back fracture in Tour de France crash
Slovenian abandoned race after being caught up in crash on stage 12, Vuelta a España participation now in doubt
By Tom Thewlis Published
-
It's time to stop expecting so much of Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour de France
The British team are always under pressure to match their past best, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon
By Adam Becket Published
-
'A bigger result than winning': Jonas Vingegaard hails second place at the Tour de France
It turns out second place is not always 'first loser'
By James Shrubsall Published
-
'Even if I never come back to the Tour de France I will be satisfied': Tadej Pogačar revels in third victory
Three Tour de France wins before turning 26, the Giro-Tour double, the suggestion of a triple crown. Records tumble for the Slovenian
By Adam Becket Published
-
Remco Evenepoel: No one should doubt me anymore
The Tour de France's third-placed finisher suggests that he will have to reduce his time trial work if he is to beat Tadej Pogačar
By Chris Marshall-Bell Published
-
Tadej Pogačar: 'There will always be doubts... but cycling is the cleanest sport'
Tour de France champion addresses critics, saying it would be "super stupid" to dope
By Adam Becket Published
-
How Tadej Pogačar created history and won the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double
A journey that was supposedly fraught with risk and uncertainty was anything but for Giro d'Italia and Tour de France victor Tadej Pogačar
By Chris Marshall-Bell Published
-
Tadej Pogačar obliterates field in stage 21 time trial to seal his third Tour de France victory and prestigious Giro-Tour double
Slovenian wins a sixth stage of this edition by more than a minute to top off imperious Tour
By Flo Clifford Published