Tour de France: Tom Pidcock wins on Alpe d’Huez as Vingegaard holds firm

In one of the most remarkable exhibitions of climbing and descending seen in the modern Tour de France, Tom Pidcock set out his stall as a future contender by becoming the youngest-ever stage winner at Alpe d’Huez.

As the Olympic gold medallist rode to a memorable win on the famous hairpins, the defending champion, Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates, began his fightback against the race leader, Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard, although the Slovenian was unable to make any impact and is 2min 22sec behind in second.

Pidcock, who had been badgering his Ineos Grenadiers’ team management for a free role, descended at 100km/h and climbed the 21 hairpins of the legendary ascent to the Alpe faster than his breakaway companions to stamp his mark on this year’s Tour.

“To ride up Alpe d’Huez, the most iconic finish in cycling, at the head of the race, that’s one of the best experiences of my life,” he said. Asked what his team’s plan had been at the stage start in Briançon, Pidcock responded: “To get me in the break and to try and win the stage. Box ticked, I guess.”

Champion in the Olympic Games, the mountain biking gold winner at the Tokyo Olympics, a cyclo-cross world champion and with multiple titles across cycling’s disciplines, Pidcock has long been ranked among the “Pogacar generation” of multi-talented riders such as the Slovenian himself, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout Van Aert, capable of excelling on all terrains. Even so, a dominant stage win on a course as brutal as this came as a surprise.

The 165km stage returned to the Col du Galibier, the platform for Vingegaard’s opening salvos on Pogacar’s lead during the 11th stage to the Col du Granon, where the Dane debunked Pogacar’s supposedly unbeatable status.

But on