Tom Pidcock is ready.
His first grand tour with his new team didn’t quite go to plan, but his second should be decidedly better.
The Q36.5 Pro Cycling leader went into the Giro d’Italia in May with ambitious hopes of a strong showing.
He’d embraced leadership of his new team and come out of the blocks flying, winning two stages plus the overall in the AlUla Tour. Another victory on stage two of the Vuelta a Andalucia gladdened the sponsors, while his second place in Strade Bianche behind Tadej Pogačar was impressive.
Third in Flèche Wallonne plus top nine finishes in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race boosted expectations for the Giro but things didn’t quite fizzle there.
Third, fourth and fifth on stages were below his own expectations. So too was 16th overall on GC.
But, following a stage win plus second overall in the Arctic Race of Norway, his coach Kurt Bogaerts is feeling good about his chances.
“With Tom, the Vuelta is probably the first time that he’s really prepared for a GC, and so we will see what that brings,” he told Velo this week.
Bogaerts is fully convinced he will show better in the Spanish grand tour than he did in Italy.
Much as Pidcock was flying early on in the season, he believes he was running out of oomph by the time May rolled around.
“We did a busy season deal until the Giro, and then you can’t expect the ultimate GC there,” Bogaerts said. “What we wanted to do in Giro is to be competitive every day, and try to give a signal to his mind, to his body, to be in the game every day. To try to concentrate on the details for recovery, and to be mentally ready as well as possible every day. I think we succeeded in that.
“But the general freshness was missing to execute a really good GC. So if you race from AlUIa and you do all the classics until Liège, then I don’t think it’s realistic.”
‘The Giro was a really good learning process’
It’s clear that Pidcock’s early season took a toll. He racked up 24 days of competition prior to the Giro and then did 21 more days of racing there.
That represents 45 days of action in just over four months.
Q36.5 Pro Cycling didn’t have an invite to the Tour de France and, happy to back off, Pidcock opted for a decidedly lighter program.
He took a complete break from road racing following his tenth place in the Andorra MorBanc Clàssica on June 22, switching to MTB racing and winning the Pal Arinsal World Cup race plus the European championships in July.
Those events plus the four days of the Arctic Race of Norway mean he has raced just a handful of times since the end of the Giro. Providing his training has gone to plan, that should ensure he hits the Vuelta fresh and firing on all cylinders.
It’s never an exact science in getting ready for a grand tour, but Bogaerts sounds confident that a good performance is in store.
He also believes this year’s Giro d’Italia experience will really stand to Pidcock.
“I think the Giro was a really good learning process for Tom. He took a lot of positives out of it. As regards a stage win, I think we were unfortunate on the Strade stage. In some other stages we came close.
“He took a lot of positives out of it. I think he was in a decent place coming out of that race and then had a good race. Now I think he is in a good place.”
‘I’m going to go full for GC’
Pidcock himself is forecasting big things in the Vuelta. He spoke to TNT Sports this week and, like his coach, is in an upbeat frame of mind.
“I think it will help me move on as a rider, perhaps,” he stated. “I’ve had a pretty nice summer … not so many races, Norway most recently. So I feel really refreshed actually, a lot more refreshed than I was a year ago.
“Hopefully we’ll see some difference from me. I’m going to go full for the GC. We’re going to do the best in the GC as possible. Shorter climbs, so we’ll see.”
Showing well in the race is very important for the Briton. He won the Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France from a breakaway three years ago and that immediately ramped up expectations. He was billed by some as the next British winner of the Tour but so far he hasn’t quite delivered on his grand tour potential.
Finishing 13th in the 2023 Tour is his best showing thus far and, at 26, it’s time to step up if he is indeed to put himself in the frame as a future Tour contender.
Thankfully the vibes are good in the run up to the race; if his form does indeed match his expectations he could thrive in the next three weeks.