"That was kind of an ideal scenario for me" - Tom Pidcock narrowly misses out on second Tour de France stage win in thrilling finale to gravel stage

On a day well suited to the day capabilities of Tom Pidcock, the Brit was always fancied to be in the mix on the stage 9 gravel of the 2024 Tour de France, especially after falling out of GC contention. Sadly for the Brit, he couldn't quite take a second Tour stage win, coming home in a close second behind Anthony Turgis.

Pidcock headed into the finale in the lead breakaway group alongside the aforementioned Turgis, Derek Gee, Jasper Stuyven, Javier Romo, Alex Aranburu, Alexey Lutsenko and Ben Healy. "When I'm in a group like that, I never show how I'm really feeling," the INEOS Grenadiers star explains afterwards in conversation with Daniel Friebe for ITV Sport. "I don't respond straight away to attacks so that in the final I'll have a bit more, but yeah, it was hard."

A much talked about and much anticipated stage, the pace was unrelentingly fierce throughout the day in both the peloton and at the front. "This morning I was less than 57 kilos so when you're averaging 280w for 4 and a half hours, it's quite a lot," continues the Brit.

In a frantic sprint for the line, Pidcock looked to be well positioned in the slipstream of Gee and Turgis, just waiting for his moment to launch past. In the end though, whilst Gee was overcome, Turgis just held on for his biggest career win. "That was kind of an ideal scenario for me," Pidcock admits. "I knew Stuyven would be the strongest one if he went. I was hoping that the guys would respond from behind and it's always difficult to let that play out but you've got to also understand that everyone in that group is also there to win.

2024 Tour de France stage 9 results: