'I just don’t have it on the long climbs' – Pidcock honest after Tourmalet setback
Tom Pidcock’s (Pinarello-Q36.5) GC hopes suffered a setback on the Tour de France’s first true mountain test, as the Briton was distanced on the Col du Tourmalet and conceded significant time to several of the race’s leading contenders. Yet rather than dwell on the disappointment, the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider offered a frank assessment of his condition, explaining that his disrupted preparation had not helped his ability to handle the longest climbs.
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Tom Pidcock finished 15th on the stage 6, crossing the line in Gavarnie-Gèdre part of a group 8:18 behind stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who produced a dominant performance to reclaim the yellow jersey.
The Briton shipped 5:21 to the main chasing group containing Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) a few seconds back.
Speaking after the finish in Gavarnie-Gèdre, Pidcock was honest about the difficulty of the day and credited the support of his teammate Chris Harper who supported him through the stage.
“Very tough. I’m very thankful to have Chris [Harper] there looking after me,” Pidcock said. “Although also, in those situations, you just want to bury yourself in a hole and hide away.
“But no, very tough, I just don’t have it on the long climbs. I went as hard as I could, and we’ll see what we can do throughout the rest of the race.”
Pidcock was distanced before Pogačar launched his decisive attack on the Tourmalet, and remained in good humour when asked what he thought of the world champion’s acceleration, stating, “I don’t know, I didn’t see his attack, I was dropped.”
The 26-year-old admitted he anticipated before the stage that the Pyrenean test could be a defining moment in the battle for the yellow jersey and an opportunity for Pogačar to take control of the race.
“I knew that was going to happen today,” Pidcock said. “They [UAE] wanted to keep the jersey the day they lost it, they didn’t manage it. Now there are basically four rest days for him, so yeah, today was all the cards on the table. I said this morning, today Tadej [Pogačar] can win the Tour de France.”
Preparation gap hurts Pidcock
The Briton attributed some of his struggles to an interrupted build-up, having crashed at Volta a Catalunya in March, before suffering from illness which ruled him out of the Tour de Suisse in June.
“I hope to get better and better,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is difficulty on the long climbs. Crashing in Catalunya and missing the mountain stages, getting sick for a week and then missing Suisse, it doesn’t help.”
Despite the difficult stage, Pidcock insisted that his current feeling is far from disastrous, and pointed out the high level at the front of the Tour.
“Our performance was not that bad. The level is just super high,” he said. “We’ll see the rest of the race, just got to keep the spirits high. It’s not the end of the world.”
Pidcock now sits 15th overall, 9:50 behind race leader Pogačar, and 2:40 behind Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) in tenth.
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