{"id":153146,"date":"2025-09-18T23:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153146\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T23:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:46:12","slug":"nick-zukowsky-on-protests-podiums-and-pidcock-at-la-vuelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153146\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Zukowsky on protests, podiums and Pidcock at la Vuelta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Zukowsky admits the protests that disrupted la Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\u2019s final stage weren\u2019t optimal, but he still found reasons to celebrate alongside his team.<\/p>\n<p>The Q36.5 rider was part of Tom Pidcock\u2019s squad, which saw the British star finish third overall. The <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/uci-slams-madrid-vuelta-chaos-questions-spains-ability-to-host-major-events\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">final stage was cancelled due to protests and podium ceremonies being cancelled due to safety concerns.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously it wasn\u2019t nice to see,\u201d Zukowsky, 27 said. \u201cEveryone has a right to protest, and we were just focused on the race. It\u2019s a shame it had an impact on the race and the possibility of the podium being cancelled. But we were all in the same boat, and we just had to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/jonas-vingegaard-is-grateful-to-tom-pidcocks-mother\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jonas Vingegaard is grateful to Tom Pidcock\u2019s mother<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Rather than letting the disruption ruin the moment, Zukowsky and his teammates <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/riders-stage-makeshift-podium-after-vuelta-finale-cancelled-amid-madrid-protests\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">improvised<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had our own little ceremony in the parking lot at the Visma Hotel. It felt like a grassroots event, like a local race podium. It was a lot of fun, and we got to cheer our teammate onto the podium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>For Zukowsky personally, the race offered more than just a podium experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised with how I coped with fatigue,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I discovered something I can aim toward next season \u2014 maybe focus more on stage races and Grand Tours. Being part of a team on the podium is pretty incredible. It hit me at the finish line \u2014 really special emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian credited the months of preparation behind Pidcock\u2019s podium. \u201cWe weren\u2019t the strongest team in the mountains, but everyone gave 100 per cent to support him. In the end, it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Que. rider also touched on missing the world championships in Rwanda. \u201cI was looking forward to it, but with the schedule and travel, it just didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the end-of-season races are key for earning UCI points. They influence the team\u2019s calendar and goals for next year<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll focus on the next races coming up for our team and to end off the season well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Zukowsky admits the protests that disrupted la Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\u2019s final stage weren\u2019t optimal, but he still&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,67720,78030,85,63570],"class_list":["post-153146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-la-vuelta-a-espana","tag-nick-zukowsky","tag-sports","tag-tom-pidcock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}