“When the win is there, it doesn’t work” – Mechanical chaos leaves Tom Pidcock kicking his bike in Tour de France showdown with Mathieu van der Poel
Cycling
Tom Pidcock’s bid for victory on Stage 9 of the 2026 Tour de France was disrupted by a shifting failure which first dropped him from the decisive move and then forced him to change position midway through the uphill sprint in Ussel.
The Briton recovered from the initial problem to finish third behind Mathieu van der Poel and Tobias Halland Johannessen, but was unable to shift from the drops when the four leaders launched their final accelerations.
“My bike works perfect the whole race and then today, when the win is there, it doesn’t work,” Pidcock said after the finish. “The shifter, the button doesn’t work, only the top one, so I don’t know.”
Pidcock forced to improvise around shifting failure
The problem first appeared on the Mont Bessou with approximately 25 kilometres remaining. Van der Poel attacked on the 900-metre climb and briefly distanced every other member of the breakaway before Pidcock and Johannessen fought their way back.
Pidcock then lost contact again when his lower shifting button stopped responding. Television pictures showed him striking the rear derailleur with his heel while descending, apparently bringing the bike back to life before he rejoined Van der Poel, Johannessen and Alex Baudin.
Pidcock later explained that the kick had not repaired anything. He had instead discovered that the button on top of his handlebars still worked. “I didn’t fix it with the kick; that didn’t do anything,” he said. “It’s just the buttons. Only the top one works.”
That workaround allowed Pidcock to return to the front, but it depended on keeping his hands on the hoods. Once the sprint began, instinct took him back onto the drops and away from the only functioning control.
“I was focusing so much on the sprint and I was in the drops, and that bottom shifter wasn’t working,” he explained. “I started sprinting and I couldn’t change gear, so then I had to go on my hoods.”
Van der Poel launched from the front and held off Johannessen, with Pidcock recovering enough momentum to complete the podium ahead of Baudin.
No mechanical excuse after Van der Poel victory
Pidcock had attempted to turn Van der Poel’s superior finishing speed against him in the final kilometre. With the reduced peloton still chasing, he left the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider on the front in the hope that the shrinking advantage would force an early acceleration.
“I tried to just let Mathieu lead the last kilometre,” Pidcock said. “Obviously, he was the fastest in our group, so he would need to go early if the bunch was coming, but they were not close enough. In the end it was a short sprint, and I don’t think I would have come around him anyway.”
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The mechanical therefore complicated Pidcock’s sprint without becoming his explanation for defeat. His stronger source of encouragement came from everything that had placed him in contention for the stage.
Pidcock bridged alone to the large breakaway, made the decisive eight-rider selection and collected seven mountain points across the Suc au May and Cote de la Croix du Pey. He compared that performance favourably with his appearance in the breakaway on the gravel stage of the 2024 Tour.
“I was going super well today, I had really good legs and was feeling strong,” he said. “If I compare it to the last time I was in the breakaway in the Tour de France on the gravel stage, today I was really in the game in the breakaway. So it definitely shows that my level is higher.”
Third place lifted Pidcock two positions to 13th overall, while his ability to contest the stage with Van der Poel offered firmer evidence of his improved level than the malfunctioning shifter allowed him to demonstrate in the sprint.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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