When Tom Pidcock assessed the 2023 Tour de France with his leadership team at Ineos Grenadiers, they pored over the opening nine stages before the first rest day and earmarked three they thought he could win.
The first was stage one, a hilly route through the Spanish Basque Country with the promise of the yellow jersey at the finish in Bilbao. It didn’t go to plan – Pidcock couldn’t keep pace with the elite group over the steep Cote de Vivero climb and he lost contact, eventually coming in 30 seconds behind the winner, fellow Briton Adam Yates. He was frustrated by how it played out.
