Tom Pidcock said he’s “back in the game” at the Tour de France, after clawing back more than seven minutes from the breakaway on stage 13 and climbing to fourth overall.
The Pinarello Q36.5 rider finished third on the stage to Belfort, attacking out of a front group that contained 57 riders – a third of the entire peloton – and finishing behind the tearaway leaders, Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), the latter of whom won the stage.
“Of course I’m disappointed for the stage,” Pidcock said afterwards. “I’m ambitious, I want to try and win, that’s the main thing. But we take the positives.”
The biggest positive was a remarkable fight-back in the general classification. Having lost almost 10 minutes on stage six in the Pyrenees, Pidcock managed to propel himself from 10th to fourth, just nine seconds off Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) in third.
There was even a moment during the stage when the live timings had Pidcock as virtual second overall.
A repeat of his Vuelta a España podium last year, he told the media post-stage, is now a real possibility.
“It’s certainly good,” he said. “I’m back in the game after the Tourmalet [on stage six]. In the Vuelta, I was getting better in the race. First week I was getting dropped, losing time. It’s all to play for.”
Around 100m beyond the finish line in Belfort, Pidcock pulled up on his bike and stopped in front of his Pinarello Q36.5 soigneur, who placed a towel around his neck, as if toasting his ride with a wreath.
The Briton then took a bottle of water and emptied it over his face, before he was rushed to the podium, where he received the day’s award for the most combative rider.
“I was close again, third again, but obviously we took a lot of time in GC and I’ve got a gold number tomorrow [as the winner of the combativity award],” he said.
“I’m straight back in there with the podium fight, but I know realistically with the time trial I’m going to lose a lot.
“We’ll see what the next days bring. Today obviously was a big day, but we’ll take it day by day. Today we didn’t really know exactly what we wanted or wanted out of it. In the end, we were in the break, going for the GC and the stage, so every day brings something new.”
The race goes deeper into the mountains this weekend, with a summit finish to Le Markstein on Saturday, and the race’s first hors catégorie finale on the Plateau de Solaison on Sunday.
Following Monday’s rest day, there will be a 26.1km time trial into Thonon-les-Bains, which counts a second-category climb and 500m of elevation within it.
“For sure a top-10 is very realistic now,” Pidcock said of his GC prospects. “I know for sure I’m going to lose a lot of time in the time trial, so a podium is going to be difficult, but we’ll see.”
