Tom Pidcock has become the youngest winner of the Tour de France stage on Alpe d'Huez, eclipsing Luis Herrera, who won his first stage there way back in 1984 when aged 23 years.
Pidcock, 22 years old and riding for Ineos Grenadiers, got across to the early breakaway today, on the descent of the Col du Galibier - which was crested after just 33km. He was in the company of four-time Tour winner Chris Froome (Israel Premier Tech), who put in his best ride for years today.
The breakaway built a gap of over seven minutes into the peloton at one point and still had over five in hand on the remains of the bunch as they began the ascent of Alpe d'Huez to the finish line.
And while the breakaway initially stayed together, as the Jumbo Visma-led peloton ramped up the pace into the bottom of the climb, Pidcock was simply biding his time. The moment the steep early hairpins began to bite, with just over 10km of the climb remaining, the young British rider made his move.
Advertisement
At first the world cyclocross champion and Olympic MTB champion didn't exactly blow away his breakaway rivals. For several kilometres Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) rode next man on the road at a handful of seconds with Froome riding the climb on his own another handful of seconds back.
But as the climb progressed, the smooth pedaling style of Pidcock began to win the race; the gaps to those behind him growing incrementally until it became clear with as much as 5km to go that the win was in the bag barring disaster.
Behind him, a real race was on once again in the yellow jersey group as the man who lost the race lead yesterday, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), attacked the new race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who stuck to his main rival's wheel like glue.
And as those two battled it out the select group blew to pieces; Pogačar and Vingegaard head and shoulders above the others. But Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) proved best of the rest, riding his way back up to the big two.
Related News
That trio rode the final slopes of the climb together, all finishing on the same time - 3:23 behind stage winner Pidcock - despite Pogačar trying to steal a few seconds by sprinting hard for the line, for 5th place.
The only four survivors from the breakaway were: Pidcock, who won by 48 seconds from Meintjes, with Froome 3rd at 2:06 and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) claiming 4th place at 2:29.
The others in the early breakaway and who fell by the wayside on Alpe d'Huez or before it were: Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Matîs Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic) and Gerhard Schönberger (B&B Hotels-KTM).
The result today moves Pidcock up to three places to 8th, some 7:39 down on yellow jersey Vingegaard. Pogačar is up one place to 2nd overall at 2:22 and now Thomas is up to 3rd, at 2:26 after 2nd placed overnight - Romain Bardet (Team DSM) - struggled today. The French rider finished in 11th place and lost 19 seconds to the Vingegaard-Pogačar-Thomas group.
More to come.
