Tom Pidcock fined and docked 20 seconds in general classification at Tour de France
Briton goes into second rest day ninth overall
Tom Pidcock was fined 400CHF (£370, $500) and docked 20 seconds in the general classification of the Tour de France for ‘pushing off a car’ on stage 15.
The Pinarello Q36.5 rider was judged to have committed the offence twice during the stage, in which he spent more than 100km in the breakaway.
Each offence carried a fine of 100CHF and a 10-second penalty in the general classification. Pidcock was also docked 30 points in the UCI rankings and eight points in the Tour’s mountains classification.
The time penalty ultimately changed little for Pidcock, who is ninth in the overall standings going into Monday’s rest day, nine minutes and five seconds clear of TotalEnergies rider Jordan Jegat in tenth.
“The last climb, the last 5km, I was crawling up, just trying to get to the top. Completely f***ed,” he said after the stage, having crossed the line 13th, almost three minutes behind the winner atop the Plateau de Solaison, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
The Briton was part of the breakaway on Sunday for the third day in a row at the Tour. “I’m getting quite good at getting in the breakaways,” he said. “Has anyone ever been in the breakaway three days in a row in the top 10? I don’t think so. Tadej can break loads of records but so can I.”
Pidcock was one of four riders fined on stage 15; Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) received a 500CHF (£460, $620) fine for 'feeding on foot outside the feeding zone; Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was fined 200CHF for a sticky bottle; and Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was fined 200CHF for feeding from his team car in a fixed feeding zone.
One other rider has been docked time at this year's Tour; Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) received a 20-second penalty on stage 10 for unauthorised feeding during the last 15km.
