Pidcock Survives a Brutal Coll de la Botella Showdown to Win the Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica
Tom Pidcock claimed an emotional home victory at the 2026 Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica, surviving a ferocious late attack from Sepp Kuss and then outsprinting Carlos Verona at the summit of the Coll de la Botella. It was the Briton's fourth win of the season and, by his own admission, came at the perfect moment after “some difficult weeks” in the build-up to the Tour de France.
Run over 125km with more than 4,000 metres of climbing, the one-day race in Pidcock's adopted home of Andorra was always destined to be a war of attrition. The route stacked up the Port d'Envalira, the Coll d'Ordino and the Pardines climb before the brutal finale on the Coll de la Botella, and by the time the survivors hit the lower slopes of the final ascent only a handful of genuine contenders remained.
Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team took control as the road tilted upwards, driving the pace to shred the front group and set their leader up for the decisive moves. The tactic worked, isolating the strongest climbers and turning the closing kilometres into a pure test of legs on one of the hardest finishes on the calendar.
The defining moment arrived inside the final four kilometres when Kuss, the 2023 Vuelta a España champion, launched a trademark acceleration and opened a dangerous gap. For a moment it looked as though the Visma-Lease a Bike climber might solo clear, but Pidcock backed himself, dug deep and personally hauled the move back rather than waiting for help.
Having neutralised Kuss, Pidcock then had to answer one final challenge. Verona kicked in the closing metres, but the Briton was glued to his wheel and produced the stronger finishing burst to take the win. Verona settled for second, Kuss recovered to take third, with Chris Harper fourth and Ben Tulett rounding out the top five.
The victory carries significance well beyond a single result. With the Tour de France opening in Barcelona on 4 July, the Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica served as Pidcock's final high-altitude tune-up, and the manner of the win — aggressive, decisive and tactically assured — suggests he is arriving at the Grand Départ in genuine form.
For Kuss, the ride was an encouraging sign of climbing legs ahead of a Tour where he will once again be a key mountain lieutenant for Jonas Vingegaard. But the day belonged to Pidcock, who described the relief of being “on the right side of the line” after a turbulent spell, and who could hardly have scripted a better way to silence the doubts in front of his home crowd.