Tom Pidcock has never finished in the top 10 at the Tour de France. The Pinarello Q36.5 rider has come close before, with 13th in 2023, but three years on, the 26-year-old is days away from what would last as one of the biggest results of his career.
There are just five stages left of the 2026 Tour de France, and Pidcock lies in eighth place overall, after Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed out on Tuesday. The man from Leeds also has 9:52 over the rider in ninth place, TotalEnergies’ Jordan Jegat. He wouldn’t want to call it yet, to put a curse on himself, but it is likely that he has already penned his name into a debut top 10 at the world’s biggest bike race.
Speaking after stage 16’s time trial, in Thonon-les-Bains, Pidcock said: “Top 10 unless something goes badly wrong, it’s reasonable to say it’s achievable. I think I’m far enough down that I could try and get in some more breakaways. Top 10 is great for me and the team, but obviously I want to try and win a stage too.”
The individual time trial has never been Pidcock’s strongest suit as a pro rider, with the former junior world time trial champion never finishing higher than fifth in an elite TT. However, on stage 16, he averaged 45.464kph, only dropping 2:07 to stage winner Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), the reigning world champion.
“I don’t know how I finished there, but I know at the top of the climb I was fastest time for everyone who has been before me,” he said post-race. “I don’t know if I faded there, I also took it slow down the descent. It was a scary descent with those walls. That might be the best TT I’ve ever done. Good for fuck all training I do on this bike.”
As for the final week, Pidcock will keep trying to get that stage win, and simply try not to lose too much time in the Alpe d’Huez stages.
“I don’t have the level I had in the Vuelta [a España] last year,” he explained, after he finished third at that race. “In these mountain top finishes I’ll lose a couple of minutes every time. A breakaway’s a good way to get ahead. I do think I’m getting stronger. Yesterday, I felt my legs after my three days in the break. That was probably the easiest rest day ride I’ve ever done. When I was going I felt super strong. If it was a 20 minute climb I would have done my best ever 20 minutes on a TT bike.”
