Tom Pidcock may be renowned for his bike handling skills, especially when the road tilts downwards, but it turns out that even the peloton’s most daredevil of descenders can be unnerved from time to time.
The British star enjoyed a strong start to Tuesday’s 26.1km individual time trial between Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains, the Tour de France’s solitary solo effort against the clock this year, setting the fastest time when he crossed the first intermediate time check at 4.8km, halfway up the course’s main climb.
However, Pidcock ceded ground, perhaps uncharacteristically, on the following descent, a tight, technical stretch of road surrounded on both sides by high stone walls.
The double Olympic mountain bike champion ultimately finished 12th on the stage, 2.07 behind a rampant Remco Evenepoel, who secured his second win in a row at this year’s Tour.
Nevertheless, Pidcock’s time was only a second off that of his old Ineos teammate Filippo Ganna, a two-time world time trial champion, a ride the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider described after the stage as maybe the best he’s ever managed on a TT bike – especially considering his relative lack of familiarity with the discipline and its equipment.
“On the climb I had the fastest time from everyone who’d been before me, so I don’t know if I faded at the end,” the 26-year-old told reporters, including road.cc, shortly after crossing the line.
“I took it too slow down the descent. It was a scary descent, with those walls. But hat might be the best TT I’ve ever done, that is – good for the f*** all training I do on this bike.”
That result cements Pidcock’s position within the top ten overall: he currently sits in eighth place, just eight seconds behind French climber Lenny Martinez and a huge nine minutes and 52 seconds clear of Jordan Jegat in ninth.
Asked if he’ll favour maintaining his GC position or getting into breakaways in the Alps this week, Pidcock insisted that he wants to “continues how I’ve been”.
“Top 10, unless something goes badly wrong, it’s pretty reasonable to say it’s achievable,” he said.
“And I think I’m far enough down that I can maybe try and get in some more breakaways and go for some stages, but I think top ten will be great for me and the team. I think that’s the big thing, but obviously I want to try and win a stage too.”
Despite his optimism, Pidcock admitted that his build-up to the Tour was hampered by the injuries sustained in a heavy crash at the Volta a Catalunya in March, leaving him short of the form which helped him podium at last year’s Vuelta a España.
That inability to finetune his fitness, Pidcock says, resulted in him suffering on his rest day ride on Monday following consecutive days on the attack.
“I said when I came into the race, the run-in was not the best. I don’t have the level I had in the Vuelta last year, so I think these mountain top finishes, I’ll lose a couple of minutes every time probably,” he said.
“So a breakaway is a good way to try and get ahead. But I do think I’m getting stronger. Yesterday I felt the legs after the three days in the break – that was probably the easiest rest day ride I’ve done this year.
“And this morning on the bike also, my legs were not moving. But then when I was going, I felt super strong. If it had been a 20-minute climb, I think I would have done my best ever 20 minutes today on a TT bike.”
1 thought on ““Good for the f*** all training I do on this bike”: Tom Pidcock loses time on “scary” descent but happy with “best TT I’ve ever done” at Tour de France”
Would he have performed better on his normal bike?