Tom Pidcock blamed his disappointing performance on Saturday's 14th stage of the Tour de France on not eating enough during the grueling trek through the Alps.

Pidcock, a Briton, finished the stage to Morzine 8:40 behind stage winner Ineos Grenadiers teammate Carlos Rodriguez.

He dropped just three places on the day, from 8th to 11th, but was 32 seconds out of 5th, 9:02 behind Adam Yates, and well out of contention for a top-five finish.

"I need to evaluate it a little bit, but I think I didn't have enough energy," Pidcock told Cycling Weekly after the stage.

Pidcock said he had imagined attacking on the day's final climb, the HC-class Col de Joux Plaine. But that day, the mountain was the scene of a battle between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadei Pogachar from an elite group of seven.

"It was a very hard day. I was so confident this morning. I was envisioning an epic attack at the top of the Col de Joux Plane, but I started with the gas pedal at full throttle."

Pidcock dropped out of the leading group in the last 2km of the Col de la Ramaz with less than 51km to go. After being 30 seconds down on the summit, Pidcock hoped that his fearsome downhill technique would allow him to make it to his stint on the valley road before the Joux Plain.

However, he lost time on the descent and led a small group that included Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), and Dylan Van Baar (Jumbo Visma), lying 2 minutes behind at the base of the final climb.

Rodriguez was heading for Ineos Grenadier's second win in two days, following Michał Kwiatkowski's (Grand Colombier) victory on stage 13, but Pidcock was off the radio and did not notice.

"I saved a little bit at Lamaze and thought I might be able to come back, but it was just painful," he told Cycling Weekly. I had to take my radio off, so when I got back on the bus, everyone was saying, 'Congratulations.'" I thought, "What are people saying congratulations for?" I was thinking, "I just found out that Carlos won. Until I found out that Carlos won, I was thinking, "What is everyone saying congratulations for?" I was thinking, "What's everyone saying congratulations for?