
The Tour de France giveth and the Tour de France taketh away. While Ineos Grenadiers co-leader Carlos Rodríguez was busy steaming into Morzine with his hands in the air and a smile on his face Tom Pidcock, who had started the day just four places further back on GC, was labouring and desperately trying to minimise his losses.
The Yorkshireman had been distanced by the furious pace of the GC group on the slopes of the Col de la Ramaz, the penultimate mountain of the day, and fought along the valley, up the Col de Joux Plane and down the other side.