"Offence is the best form of defence" - Tom Pidcock continues AlUla Tour domination with second stage win in three days

Tom Pidcock is really settling into life at the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. For the second time in three days, the Brit proved strongest of the pack in the Saudi hills to take another stage win and increase his lead in the general classification.

With the stage coming down to one explosive climb in the finale, Pidcock, thanks in part due to a lack of teammates around him, took the pace-setting into his own hands and stormed away from all his rivals, summiting around 30 seconds clear. "Offence is the best form of defence sometimes," he reflected in his post-stage interview afterwards. "Coming into this race I was told that it's normally a tailwind on this climb but now it's a headwind and it was a long eight [final] kilometres."

After the climb, a short plateau also gave Pidcock much to think about. "There were four guys behind, I don't know how well they were working, but on your own along there, you can't go out of the saddle at 50 kmh. So it was a long way," he notes. "But I'm really happy, I extended the lead and it gives us a bit of a buffer going into tomorrow."