Tom Pidcock admitted his move to infiltrate a breakaway on stage 14 of the Tour de France was “probably a mistake” after he lost five places on GC.
Pidcock was among a group of riders that formed a chase group trying to bridge across to the day’s early break in the Vosges mountains.
The group gained two minutes on the main peloton at one point lifting Pidcock into the virtual Tour de France podium places.
The Pinarello Q36.5 leader looked like he might replicate the success he’d had the day before when he gained over seven minutes from being in the day’s breakaway to leapfrog himself into fourth place overall.
However, hopes of a repeat of that success were dashed as the stage came into the deciding climbs. First Pidcock’s group was caught and then on the final climb of day, the Col du Haag, the Yorkshireman was dropped by the GC group.
He lost nearly three minutes to podium rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
“I jumped across to the break – probably a mistake, with that last climb,” Pidcock said. “But you know, whatever.”
He added that his presence as a high-placed rider on GC didn’t help the breakaway group’s chances. “In the end that made it more difficult, because it was not really smooth – no one wanted to do anything,” he said.
"But in the end Visma rode, I guess to make it harder for UAE, but they were going to ride their pace no matter what so it didn’t really change anything.
“But at least it meant I got a little bit of a head start in the final, but on the last climb I didn’t have much legs left.”
Pidcock now sits ninth in the general classification, 7.59 off yellow jersey-wearer Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG). He is just under three minutes away from the Tour podium.
The Brit will be braced for more GC losses as he already predicted following his exploits on stage 13 that he’d “lose a lot of time in the time trial” on Tuesday.
Before then he will face another mountain test on Sunday as the race climbs to a a finish atop the Hors Cat Plateau de Solaison Brison on stage 15.