"We don't want to give him 12 or 13 minutes" - Bahrain DS explains their chase of Pidcock's breakaway
CyclingSaturday, 18 July 2026 at 01:00
Oddly enough, Bahrain - Victorious was among the teams who appeared at the front of peloton during stage 13 of 2026 Tour de France. Even though the team did not seem to have any apparent objective to pursue, sports director Enrico Gasparotto argues they simply acted in line with their own interests.
As has been predicted, the thirteenth stage has gone to the breakaway. Just like the others, Bahrain - Victorious had the representation in the 57-man group thanks to Matej Mohoric and Vlad Van Mechelen.
However the two rouleurs were hardly seen as favourites for the finale featuring 9-kilometer Ballon d'Alsace. And, in addition, 10th overall Tom Pidcock was part of the group which held over 8-minute advantage at its peak. For Bahrain, this was a problem because thanks to this time gain, Pidcock jumped past their own GC ambition Lenny Martinez.
"Pidcock is a very good rider, he was on the podium of a Grand Tour last year at the Vuelta, so our concern was not to give him too much time, not to give him 12 or 13 minutes," Bahrain sports director Enrico Gasparotto told reporters afterwards.
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"In the end, that wouldn’t have changed anything for UAE, obviously, but after we started chasing, then Bora and Trek came and helped, more or less everyone came. In situations like that, it’s best to have a bit of an agreement and collaboration. If you do it that way, you probably benefit more than if everybody is doing their own thing."
Lenny Martinez at the 2026 Tour de France
Simply playing their best card
With Martinez in ninth overall before the stage kicked off, Bahrain - Victorious naturally weren't the ones who needed to panic as much as for example Lidl-Trek whose two GC cards - Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose - were both passed by Pidcock today.
But with stage win not in the cards of Bahrain as both Mohoric and Van Mechelen lost contact early on Ballon d'Alsace, they switched to a back-up plan - to protect their GC option.
"There were 57 riders up the road before the final climb, but we also knew that out of that 57, there would only be a few left in front," Gasparotto said. "But as ever in the Tour de France, everybody rides their own race and protects their own interests."
At the finish, Pidcock's advantage to seven and half minutes, allowing the Pinarello Q36.5 rider to leapfrog six places up the general classification to fourth. It's not a perfect situation for Bahrain as Martinez is now 2:19 behind Pidcock, but it could've been more, had they not picked up the pace.
"In the end, everyone is within two and a half minutes," Gasparotto said. "That’s exactly what we wanted."
Before the start of Friday’s stage, Martinez had indicated that a place in top ten overall had superseded the king of the mountains title as his overarching target for the Tour due to Pogacar’s supremacy on the climbs.
"If Tadej is going to be too dominant for the king of the mountains, we’ll try to change strategy."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Seems you can fool a few people by omitting some letters, well done.Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- For all the fun made of Movistar, well, as you’re asking, that’s exactly what they do during sprint stages SO, in the end, maybe they DO actually have a point?Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- Total BS If there was no Pogi, you’d not know he could exist so you’d never be in this state of devotion and you’d have picked someone else to sell to us, like Primoz at the time. Why don’t you go over to tennis forums while you still can?Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- Ah, so you’re admitting you’re not a cycling fan, just stalking someone because you feel they have some relation to you because they come from a place not too far (but not close either) from where you consider yourself to have some attachment?Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- This isn't the first time he takes up the role of water guy for his mates.
KerisVroom17-07-2026 - That's class. LA would never in a million years have done something like that for his team.Crashjames17-07-2026
- Maybe they chase after Jorgenson to measure his temperature :-)Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
- What Pidcock is mediocre . Lol world champ multi discipline and he worked for the move up GC . Ob you you should stick to football as you know nothing about cycling and Pidcock was not gifted .paultryan200217-07-2026
- I think they are more fixated on each other and in view of the much harder stage tomorrow they considered it safer to stick around each other. Kind of unusual to see all the leaders as a bunch up as big a climb and no-one trying anything. Tomorrow will show if Pidcock had a plan or was just lucky, he didn’t spend that much more energy than the others for all the gains he gathered, conditions, wind and conditions were very favourable along the way.Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
- Same like most of us continue training (with slightly less effort) when we are not completely bed-ridden. You get through it and within a few days or a week you are often back to your old self. He will be needed in the next chapter. Once you quit you can’t come back or be replaced. Given the choice, you try to see if things improve.Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
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