Tom Pidcock adds first Tour de France stage victory to mountain bike Olympic gold medal

The 2020 Olympic mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock sealed his first Tour de France stage victory on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Briton also became the youngest rider ever to win at the iconic Alpe d’Huez as he powered ahead of Louis Meintjes and four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome – who finished second and third, respectively – to take Stage 12 on Bastille Day in France.

The defending champion and UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar took fifth ahead of the general classification leader Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma, both finishing on the same time.

That result moved Pogacar from third to to second but the Dane Vingegaard retained the yellow jersey with a lead of 2 mins 22 secs.

“Today was also a super, super hard day,” Vingegaard, who held on to the yellow jersey for the second successive day, said.

“It was incredibly warm today. At the bottom of the Croix de Fer it was plus 35C, it felt like, and in the end it was a really hard day.

“Tadej attacked me a few times at the end and I would also expected him to, luckily I was able to follow him every time and I'm happy with that.”

Pidcock won the stage by 48 seconds, brining all his mountain biking experience to negotiate the steep climbs and the slopes downhill.

“I didn't really know what to do,” an ecstatic Ineos Grenadiers rider said. “I kept going because I didn't want to get caught. I honestly don't know if I went too hard or whatever, but actually I paced it really well.

That feeling of winning on Alpe d'Huez