Number thirteen: it\u2019s lucky for some. Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) will certainly like it a bit more after his huge gains on today\u2019s Tour de France stage.<\/p>\n
On stage 13 into Belfort, the all-action, multi-discipline star launched himself back into the race GC conversation, gaining 7:30 on the other contenders with a clever ambush.<\/p>\n
In the process, the Briton surged from tenth to finish the day fourth overall, 4:15 down on the yellow jersey. He was the biggest beneficiary from the 57-rider mega-break of the day.<\/p>\n
Post-race, he could not hide his disappointment at narrowly missing out on stage victory, which went to Jayco-Alula rider Mauro Schmid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ambitious, I want to try and win. That\u2019s the main thing,\u201d the Olympic mountain bike champion told media afterwards.<\/p>\n
His feelings were \u201cbittersweet. I guess a lot of positives, but I came here to try and get a stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClose again, third again [after his stage 9 finish]. Obviously, we took a lot of time on GC and I got a gold number [for the combativity prize], so it\u2019s not all bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pidcock\u2019s giant leap in GC game of snakes and ladders<\/h2>\n
Certainly not. Having lost 8:18 to stage winner Tadej Poga\u010dar on stage six to Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre, up and over the Col du Tourmalet, he is in contention again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back in the game. At the Vuelta [where he finished third], I was getting better in the race. First week I was also getting dropped and losing time, but it\u2019s all to play for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m straight back in there with the podium fight, but I know realistically in the time-trial [on stage 16], I\u2019m going to lose a lot. Now I\u2019m on an equal playing field, we\u2019ll see what the next days bring.\u201d Pidcock believes a top 10 finish is \u201cvery realistic\u201d now.<\/p>\n
He found it difficult being without a teammate in the decisive group of ten which contested the stage victory after the first-category climb of the Ballon d\u2019Alsace.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was jumping and I was looking at Team UAE Emirates-XRG. They were the dangerous ones, they had nothing to lose. They were sat in all day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Schmid and Harold Tejada (XDS Astana Team) slipped away and Pidcock rued a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n
The Wright stuff<\/h2>\n
Nevertheless, Pidcock was very happy with how underdog team Pinarello-Q36.5, one of the few non-WorldTour teams competing, raced. Fred Wright, Quinten Hermans and Xandro Maurisse drove the pace for him and helped to grow the group\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were making a big impact, dictating the race today,\u201d Pidcock said.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Velo<\/i> after the finish, his teammate Fred Wright called it a \u201cdream scenario\u201d, which was almost exactly what they had hoped for pre-stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped as well with the bonus sprint that Alpecin didn\u2019t want the Mads [Pedersen] group to come to us, so that just kept the impetus in the group,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just rode so <\/i>hard into that climb of the Ballon d\u2019Alsace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a large break getting up the road and gaining such time, especially with Pidcock there, went against a lot of conventional cycling wisdom and expectation.<\/p>\n
Wright was not particularly surprised at the group\u2019s advantage, which he felt was earned rather than \u201cgiven\u201d lightly by the bunch.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I think we were just riding really hard. I don\u2019t understand cycling either sometimes,\u201d he said, smiling. \u201cAll you can do is ride at the front and do your job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Q4A7792-scaled.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated July 17, 2026 01:04PM Number thirteen: it\u2019s lucky for some. Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) will certainly like it a bit more after his huge gains on today\u2019s Tour de France stage. On stage 13 into Belfort, the all-action, multi-discipline star launched himself back into the race GC conversation, gaining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2048698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2048698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2048698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2048698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2048698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}