Pidcock on Wout van Aert's thrilling breakaway: "He’s taking the piss, isn’t he?"

Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert have for a while been great rivals off road, but their rivalry has translated into the very top of the road peloton. Yesterday both were in high remarks on the day, with the INEOS Grenadiers rider talking about his feelings so far to the media.

“The stress is a bit more, the speed not so much yet. We haven’t raced properly, maybe today I think we may race a bit more. Think more people we want to get ahead of the race," he said in a post-race interview. Personally I’m not exactly satisfied with gaining experience, it’s a bit boring and dull. I’m not that interested [in that], I want to do something and make my impact on the race, that’s what I want to do," the Briton said convincingly. 

After a first half of the season where stomach issues constantly put him against the wall, and Covid-19 took him out of the Tour de Suisse, it was a relative surprise that he was given the spot at the Tour de France where the was high internal competition. Sure enough, that spot seems to so far have been well awarded as Pidcock not only played a crucial supporting role for his leaders so far, but is himself sitting in fifth place at the Tour de France.

“I can get experience doing that. But this year riding around, gaining experience, that’s boring," he continued. He finished yesterday's stage into Longwy in fourth place, and has described: "My legs came good in the last 3km but after that start and trying to get in the breakaway I was thinking that there’s no way I could contest this final".

He also commented on Wout van Aert's breakaway which spiced up the day, saying: "He’s playing with our balls, isn’t he? I don’t know what to say, really. He’s taking the piss, isn’t he?” he said in a light tone.