Tour de France 2023: Tom Pidcock vows to help Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Carlos Rodriguez to podium finish

Leeds’s Pidcock said he got his feeding wrong after losing time on both Saturday and Sunday, dropping out of the overall top 10 to sit 12th, nearly 17 minutes down, on Monday’s rest day.

The Olympic mountain bike champion said he will now switch focus to help Tour debutant Rodriguez, 22, who is up to third overall after his stage win in Morzine on Saturday.

“Before I had the freedom to completely explore my own capabilities but now of course I’ve fallen off (general classification), Carlos is now in third,” said Pidcock.

“I think we’ve got to do everything we can to keep him there. I’m not the most experienced at pacing people up climbs or getting bottles or whatever but I’ll do my best.”

Pidcock came into this Tour, his second, saying he wanted to test himself on the general classification as he looks to a future in which he might target the yellow jersey himself and if it was intended as a learning experience, it has certainly worked out that way.

“It’s great when it’s all going well but when things don’t go exactly how you planned then yeah, it’s harder,” added Pidcock.

“Mistakes were bound to be made. That’s what happened a couple of days ago and I’m suffering a bit from it but live and learn. We’ve still got another week.”

The Tour resumes on Tuesday with its only time trial, a 22km race against the clock which finishes with a short climb, before what promises to be a brutal stage to Courcheval on Wednesday.

After two flatter days, the final overall places will be decided on Saturday with a stage from Belfort to Le Markstein. With defending champion Jonas Vingegaard’s advantage over Tadej Pogacar just 10 seconds going into the final week, Pidcock is expecting plenty of fireworks.

“First of all, we’ve got a time trial so get through that and then this queen stage is going to be pretty brutal,” he said.

“And then there’s stage 20 as well, which could be an all-out war with how the GC looks.”

Pogacar tried to distance Vingegaard on Sunday’s finish in Saint Gervais but could not shake the Dane and for a second straight day in the Alps the pair crossed the line together. With more than five minutes to Rodriguez, barring incident the two will finish first and second in the Tour for a third year in a row. With Vingegaard aged 26 and Pogacar 24, it is a rivalry that could yet define this era.

“I think we both live and race in the moment and don’t look so much in the history of duels and battles,” Pogacar said.

“For sure we push each other in every way to improve ourselves.

"I don’t know who would have the advantage psychologically – he has his own mind and I have my own mind.

“I must say I enjoy this battle again him for a third year in a row, it is a good duel and I respect this battle a lot.”

Pogacar started the Tour having barely raced since breaking his wrist in April. Coming in the third week, the question is whether he will benefit from relative freshness or suffer from a lack of prepartion.

“We don’t know yet,” he said. “It’s not comfortable, the wrist is still sore, but you don’t pedal with the wrist and the legs are good, that’s the most important thing. I’m happy with how I am.”​​​​​​​