Andorra resident Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) took a win at 'home' at the Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica, outclimbing a select group at the top of the Coll de la Bottella to win his final race before the Tour de France.
Fellow local Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), who is an ambassador of the race that was launched in 2025, made the first dig towards the line with a few hundred metres to go, but Pidcock easily followed and then overtook him to sail to the line. Verona settled for second.
Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), who attacked with 3km to go but was reeled back in, finished third on the day.
"It was not an easy one, hard-fought that's for sure," Pidcock said at the finish. "But it's nice to be able to get your hands in the air, as difficult as it was.
"I had some difficult weeks, but it's nice to be coming out the other side. It's always a hard time of year, we've been pushing it every bit, and it came back to bite us in terms of training and I needed to make the extra step, so it's nice to that some of it's working."
Prior to this, Pidcock hadn't raced on the road since the start of May, having raced a block of mountain biking to win at the Nove Mesto World Cup, but seemed to admit the difficulties of combining two types of training and racing. His focus now will be back on the road and the Tour.
It was a mammoth day out in Andorra, with riders tackling the HC Port d'Envalira, cat-2 Coll d'Ordino, and cat-2 Pradines climbs before finishing atop the cat-1 Coll de la Bottella, 11.4km at an average of 6.9%.
After a day of attacks and various moves, the race came down to that final climb, with a group of six – Pidcock, Harper, Kuss, Verona, Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Simon Carr (Cofidis) – establishing themselves as the strongest on the challenging slopes.
In the finale, Chris Harper was working hard for Pidcock, and when Kuss attacked with 3km to go, Harper briefly went with him, before dropping back and then closing the gap to pull Pidcock back to the front into the final kilometre.
The super strong Harper then led out the sprint in the final few hundred metres, luring Verona into trying an attack, but ultimately that just acted as a launchpad for Pidcock who easily won the mountaintop sprint. Verona and Kuss completed the podium as Harper's MVP efforts were rewarded with fourth.
"Everyone was super strong today, everyone committed 100 per cent," Pidcock said of his team's efforts. "So to finish it off for them is really nice. Thank you to them, they committed, they rode all day, everyone did their part, so it's a nice feeling."
First raced in 2025, the Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica is the only one-day UCI race to take place in Andorra, where many pro cyclists live, and in both editions has attracted many of the top riders who call the small nation home.
With its heft climbing profile, the race acts as a final Tour warm-up for many riders, particularly those who are not racing their National Championships next weekend.
Results
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