Tom Pidcock's Tour de France ambitions changing into sustained attack on yellow jersey

Three days later he duly did so, descending the Galibier with the speed and daring of a downhill skier and then riding up Alpe d’Huez alone to claim a famous stage win.

It capped a buccaneering Tour de France debut for the 22-year-old from Leeds, so strong in fact that Ineos Grenadiers made him one of their leaders for his second attempt at the race this month.

It has prompted a change in mindset for a Yorkshireman whose career to date has been that of a man with a single-minded obsession with winning.

For at the first rest day of the 2023 race, Pidcock finds himself seventh on the general classification, five minutes and 26 seconds down on leader Jonas Vingegaard.

He was seventh a year ago, and actually four minutes closer to the yellow jersey, but this second Tour de France is about testing himself in the general classification.

As he sat exhausted at the top of the Puy de Dome on Sunday having jumped two places on the GC after finishing fourth amongst the overall contenders, Pidcock said he still wanted a stage win “and then I’ll be happy”, but when he spoke on Monday, Pidcock was looking at the bigger picture.

“With each test I’m improving and staying near the front, it’s actually motivating me,” he said. “Before if you’d said racing for top 10 I wouldn’t really be so bothered but actually now I’m really enjoying the challenge and each little win.

“I wouldn’t normally have the patience and focus required for three weeks riding the GC, it’s not really in my characteristics but now I’m kind of enjoying it. It’s my first actual time riding with senior pros in a proper stage race like this, it’s all kind of new. I’m growing in confidence and just exploring my limits.”

Pidcock added: “Yesterday was a great day and if I can replicate that again, that’s fantastic. The next two weeks there are some pretty tough days ahead, back-to-back days and three days in the Alps and it’s going to be a big test.

“Week two into week three is where cracks start to show. My goal is to be consistent. Personally, in my head, it’s becoming more of a challenge and a target to see where I can go on GC. If that means I don’t get a stage win maybe that’s the case but I feel I can learn a lot about myself if I fully commit to the GC now.”

Pidcock has ambitions to one day challenge for yellow himself in the Tour, but for now the former world cyclo-cross champion continues to compete across different disciplines – and will be back on his mountain bike at next month’s world championships in Scotland.

How these next two weeks go will tell Pidcock a lot about what he might be able to do in the future.

“As soon as we finish this race I’m going to be going to try and win the mountain bike worlds, which is not very normal for all the people I’m racing against, it’s a bit strange,” he said when asked if this Tour was making him change the way he thinks about balancing his goals.

Ahead of him on the GC, Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are turning the Tour into a two-horse race again, the fact they have attacked each other multiple times in the opening week the reason Pidcock is seventh again but four minutes further back.

“I think we have a really nice rivalry with Jonas,” said Pogacar. “Last year was one of the best Tours ever and I think this year already, the first week has gone by and we dropped the bombs on each other.”