Opinion: Old meets new in fruitful Alpe d'Huez alliance between Chris Froome and Tom Pidcock on the Tour de France

“It was pretty nice getting across with him,” an almost starstruck Tom Pidcock said after he was quizzed about his opportunistic collaboration with Chris Froome en route to winning Stage 12 of the Tour. “We worked well together.

He’s a legend and I just beat him up Alpe d’Huez. Maybe he’s not quick as he once was, but he’s still Chris Froome, isn’t he?” Fifteen years may separate Britain’s latest Tour stage winner and the nation’s only multiple Tour champion, but for large swathes of Thursday’s 165km ride through the high Alps, the pair were on an equal footing in the here and now.

Ad/> Pidcock was just 13 years old when Froome finished seventh on Alpe d’Huez on his way to securing the first of four Tour titles. Almost a decade on, two riders at opposing poles of their careers united on the descent of the Galibier with one shared goal: getting up the famous 21 hairpin bends at the end of the day before everyone else.

Tour de France'No regrets' — Froome 'gave it everything' on remarkable Stage 12 comeback2 HOURS AGO Pidcock wins atop Alpe d’Huez, Froome third, Vingegaard defends yellow If that was the ultimate target, it was still a distant dream. When Froome attacked from the peloton on the Galibier there was still 135km remaining of the stage.

It was not the first time the 37-year-old had tested his legs on the Tour – not the first time, even, that he’d tried his luck in Stage 12 – and most viewers expected to see another short-lived attempt to rekindle the legs and form of yesteryear. But Froome held on over the summit of the Galibier, and his bid to join the escapees further down the mountain was given a massive boost by the timely arrival of Tom Pidcock – the young tyro who had joined Ineos Grenadiers the season