Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), the third youngest of the 40 debutants in this year's Tour de France, enjoyed better racing than most of his peers over the opening eight days.

The 22-year-old finished fourth on the hilly Longwy course and is now in seventh place overall after finishing 15th on stage 9, Châtel-les-Ports du Soleil, ahead of GC men Nairo Quintana, Damiano Caruso, and Alexandre Vlasov.

In addition, Pidcock entered day 5 wearing the white young men's jersey at the end of Sunday's climb from the Alps to Chatel. At the start of stage 9, in Aigle, he told Cycling News.

"I think it was a pretty successful start," Pidcock said. 'For example, Wout [Van Aert] is a classic competitor.'

"But the fact is, he's already run the Tour de France twice. I have time to learn, to grow, to get there. But I have to do my best.

"But if you take a step back, I'm in the top 10 on GC and I'm up there on some stages. That's not bad at all."

Pidcock, who made his Grand Tour debut at last year's Vuelta a España, is still on a learning curve in the Tour despite a strong start this July. Pidcock said prior to the Grand Depart, he will not only work for the GC leader of Ineos Grenadier, but he also has a chance to get himself some results, including an uphill dash in Longwy.

He did not give details of Ineos' mountain tactics as he battles Pogachar and second-placed Jonas Vingegaard with the Alps right around the corner.

"Well, it's a surprise," Pidcock replied when asked if the team would attempt a surprise attack in the Alps. So if I told you that, ...... I will have to kill you."

"For me, I think the most you can learn for a GC rider is the first week. After the first week, you go to the mountains. There everything becomes simpler and you can learn that aspect whether you're in GC or not. So right now it's great. But after today, I'm going to decide if I should try to reduce my time, if I should try to go for the stages."

In addition to talking about the race so far and the Ineos Grenadiers team plan, Pidcock also shared his thoughts on the risk of COVID-19 affecting the race further.

The virus has caused five riders, including Quick-Step Alphavinil's Tim Declercq, to be missing from the start of the Tour, and on Sunday, Cofidis climber Guillaume Martin became the third person to leave the race in two days due to a positive test.

Pidcock, who contracted a mass infection at last month's Tour de Suisse, said that in addition to the vaccine he had already taken, his recent infection had "boosted" his immunity and he was comfortable about the risks posed by the virus in the future.

"I'm quite reassured. I think we're going to be fine. Me and Adam, "Me and Adam are one-two in Paris!" I said.

"We don't test every day. 'If you don't have symptoms, what's the point of testing? If you're sick, you're sick and you can't race; if you're infected with COVID and you don't have symptoms, it doesn't mean you can go home. Tests are done when necessary. If someone is sick, they are sick."