Pidcock powers on
British neo-pro tells Vern Pitt his first pro win came as something of a surprise
If there was any doubt left that Tom Pidcock is one of the best one-day racers of the pro peloton and Britain’s next top road star then it was completely erased last week as he celebrated his first pro win and came agonisingly close to a second.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider outsprinted one of the peloton’s hottest riders Wout van Aert (Jumbo-visma) at Brabantse Pijl last Wednesday and very nearly did so again four days later at the Amstel Gold Race before a photo finish ruled he’d lost out by mere millimetres. So close was the result that it prompted speculation on social media about its accuracy, but Ineos made no protest.
At Amstel, it was Pidcock’s blistering acceleration over the Geulhemmerberg that had split the front group taking himself, van Aert and Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) clear. He appeared every inch the strongest man in the race and, as they came to the line, van Aert opened the sprint, with Pidcock gaining quickly but not quite quickly enough.
“I should have started first because I was faster,” Pidcock told NOS after the finish. “That is a great learning moment.
“I gave Wout a small gap for the sprint, but we were too close to the finish. I was too far behind him and should have stayed in his wheel.”
The Yorkshireman said he was happy with his performance but a little frustrated the difference was so small.
It had been a different story the previous Wednesday where Pidcock had outsprinted van Aert to claim his first pro win at Brabantse Pijl, his eighth one-day race in the pro ranks.
The remains of the group of favourites were chasing Matteo Trentin (Uaeemirates) and when Pidcock pushed the pace on the Moskesstraat cobbled climb, only van Aert could stay with him. The pair caught Trentin, and Pidcock won the eventual sprint.
“Honestly I went into the sprint thinking I’d be second,” Pidcock told Cycling Weekly.
“Trentin had been away for a while and you could tell he was on his last legs. But
“Watching videos of my friends watching it, that’s the coolest part”
in the end at a sprint like that you can never tell what’s going to happen, I could have easily been last. After 50km full-gas at the end of a race like that, you just never know.”
He added: “Wout came close past Trentin and Trentin paused for a moment, which kind of stalled me, so when I got going he [van Aert] had a gap and I was getting closer and closer and I thought, ‘We’re going to be racing to the line here.’
Then he just blew and I flew past him, I was looking behind like, ‘What?!’”
Pidcock, who joined the team in February, added: “Obviously, it’s pretty cool, getting that first pro win. But it’s actually cooler watching the videos of it, watching me outsprint van Aert with the commentary on TV. Also, watching the videos of my friends watching it, that’s the coolest part.”
Pidcock said that when he joined the Worldtour ranks mere months ago he knew he could be close to winning a race. “Having raced Mathieu [van der Poel] and Wout [van Aert] and going blow for blow [in cyclo-cross], I knew I could be there at the finish of races, it just had to be my day. With Flanders, I didn’t really focus on trying to win because I didn’t think I could, I just clipped off the front and did too much work, forgot to eat and got carried away. That’s racing – I have no regrets from it, it just reminds you you have to do the basics right.”
Pidcock had spent the week prior to Brabantse Pijl training in Andorra and seeing his girlfriend for the first time in two months, which he said “definitely helped” his performance. “I had a solid week’s training without any problems. I had tendonitis at the start of the year and now that’s gone so I can train properly and you have a benchmark of how good your shape is compared to previously.”
There was no major revelry for teetotal Pidcock last Wednesday evening in preparation for the coming races, including Flèche Wallonne yesterday (after CW went to press). He did have a small celebration though: “I had a burger. It was a healthy one with steak, though.”