{"id":560981,"date":"2026-03-24T11:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560981\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T11:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:21:09","slug":"pidcocks-milan-sanremo-reflections-and-best-sprint-ever-in-catalonia-leave-strong-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560981\/","title":{"rendered":"Pidcock\u2019s Milan-Sanremo reflections and \u201cbest sprint ever\u201d in Catalonia leave strong impression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Pidcock<\/a> could smile again on Monday as he started the Volta a Catalunya. The Spanish stage race came quickly after Milan-Sanremo and offered the perfect distraction for the Brit, who came agonisingly close to victory on Via Roma on Saturday. So after two days of much-needed reflection, how did the Pinarello-Q36.5 leader look back on his ride in La Primavera?\u201cAsk me again in a few days in Catalonia how I feel, once I\u2019ve had time to reflect,\u201d Pidcock said on Saturday <\/a>after finishing second in Milan-Sanremo. He was narrowly beaten in the sprint by Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Emirates-XRG, and that hurt. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t be disappointed, but I can\u2019t help it.\u201dAnd so Eurosport<\/a> caught up with Pidcock again on Monday before the start of stage 1 in Catalonia. \u201cI feel a lot better about it. Winning and losing by such small margins only makes winning in moments like that even better. If I had won there without ever having been on the podium before, maybe it would almost have been a one-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may sound a little harsh on himself, because Pidcock was still the only rider able to stay on Poga\u010dar\u2019s wheel on both the Cipressa and the Poggio. Still, the Brit now seems more at peace with the fact he did not win Sanremo straight away. \u201cI\u2019ve now proved that I\u2019m strong enough to fight for victory. If I win it in the future, maybe it will feel even more deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

Pidcock impressed by his sprint in CataloniaCatalonia, coming so soon after that battle in La Primavera, arrived at a good moment for Pidcock. \u201cThe start list is incredibly strong, but I\u2019ve got a good amount of confidence. In the last few days the race should come towards us, because it\u2019s expected to be hard. Whether today\u2019s stage<\/a> suits me? No, I think it\u2019s more one for the punchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, Pidcock was well wide of the mark with that final prediction, because the opening stage in Catalonia did prove selective enough for the GC men. UAE Emirates-XRG made the hilly finale extremely hard, and at one point even Jonas Vingegaard appeared on the front of the peloton. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe were active as well for Remco Evenepoel.<\/p>\n

Pidcock stayed alert near the front and sprinted uphill to third place, behind Dorian Godon of INEOS Grenadiers and Evenepoel. \u201cIt was hard along the coast, constantly up and down. I went for it in the sprint, but I had to open a little too early. Once you then lose momentum, it\u2019s basically over, but I think it was one of the best sprints I\u2019ve ever done. I can be happy with that. My legs felt heavy before the start, but I felt good in that kind of power sprint,\u201d he said afterwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock could smile again on Monday as he started the Volta a Catalunya. The Spanish stage race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,211219,245768,85,63570,186824],"class_list":["post-560981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-milan-san-remo","tag-pinarello-q36-5-pro-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tom-pidcock","tag-tour-of-catalonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560981","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=560981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}