<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything I\u2019ve ever achieved in my career, I\u2019ve always imagined doing it first before I\u2019ve done it. I\u2019ve never done anything out of the blue, like magic. So having that stepping stone, I know I can be on the podium again,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that I have the ability right now to beat Tadej and Seixas and Vingegaard. But in the right situation, I can see it happening. And with the right situation, I can win a Grand Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pidcock eyes the biggest road step of his career<\/p>\n
Pidcock\u2019s Vuelta podium last year shifted the discussion around him. He had already won on the biggest road stages, most memorably on Alpe d\u2019Huez at the 2022 Tour, but a Grand Tour podium put a different frame around his three-week potential.<\/p>\n
His own relationship with Grand Tours remains typically blunt. \u201cThe Grand Tour thing doesn\u2019t really excite me so much, but it\u2019s an achievement,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIf I manage to win a Grand Tour it will be the biggest achievement in my career, because for me to concentrate for three weeks is difficult.”<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to win the road worlds. Then I will have won all three disciplines. And the gravel worlds, actually, but if that never happens I\u2019m not so bothered,” he adds. “I want a Monument. And for sure, I\u2019m going for three Olympic medals. My goal is to finish my career after five Olympics, so after the 2036 Olympic Games I\u2019ll retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
That wider ambition has always separated Pidcock from more conventional road leaders. The Tour de France sits inside a much broader career plan, alongside world titles, Monuments and Olympic targets that stretch another decade into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a demon\u201d – Pidcock on Pogacar\u2019s Milan-San Remo ride<\/p>\n
Pidcock has already tested himself directly against Pogacar this season. At Milan-San Remo, the Slovenian crashed inside the final 30 kilometres, attacked on the Poggio, dropped almost everyone and then beat Pidcock by just four centimetres on the Via Roma.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp the Poggio, when I was following his attack, it was like racing a zombie,\u201d Pidcock recalled. \u201cHe was white, white skinsuit, white shorts cut up, blood. He\u2019s a demon. It was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defeat left Pidcock frustrated, but the performance stayed with him. \u201cHe crashed, and he still dropped everyone in the race apart from me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we came to the line sprinting for the win. Obviously I was very frustrated with how close it was. Honestly, I have so much respect for him after that. He could have easily thrown in a towel. He got up. And he still won the race. That was a really incredible thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pidcock was also asked whether Pogacar\u2019s dominance risks making cycling boring. \u201cWell, you have to embrace and accept it,\u201d he replied. \u201cBut they\u2019re not wrong, are they?\u201d<\/p>\n
Happier after Ineos exit<\/p>\n
Pidcock\u2019s road career has taken on a different shape since his move away from INEOS Grenadiers at the end of 2024. He joined Pinarello-Q36.5 as the team\u2019s marquee name and has since become the face of a project trying to force its way into the top tier. \u201cI\u2019m a lot happier,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that it was not going well at INEOS. It\u2019s brilliant and I also think you see that in my results. But we left on good terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether beating former INEOS teammate Egan Bernal at the Tour of the Alps gave him extra pleasure, Pidcock offered only: \u201cNo comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Tour of the Alps stage win came after a brutal crash at the Volta a Catalunya in March, where Pidcock fell into a ravine, suffered a tibia stress fracture, damaged knee ligaments and sustained heavy bruising. He still climbed back out and finished the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s funny \u2026 well, it wasn\u2019t funny,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the time, once I\u2019d got out of the ditch, I could get on the bike and I could kind of pedal. My shoulder, my elbow and my hand initially hurt the most. I was like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ve definitely broken something here but maybe I haven\u2019t. I\u2019m going to finish the stage.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time he reached hospital, his knee had swollen badly and he could not walk. Less than a month later, he was back racing. \u201cI had quite a long time off – basically nine days doing completely nothing – which I never do even in an off season,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I actually felt all right on the bike. I was like: \u2018OK, let\u2019s go race. Why not?\u2019 And to be honest that\u2019s quite brave, because I\u2019m in the spotlight. I\u2019m showing myself up a little bit if I\u2019m not good. People expect me to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pidcock now heads towards July with a Tour stage win, a Vuelta podium and one of the most varied palmares in the sport already behind him. Pogacar, Vingegaard and Seixas may start above him in the pecking order, but Pidcock has already pictured the scenario in which the race becomes something more.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cEverything I\u2019ve ever achieved in my career, I\u2019ve always imagined doing it first before I\u2019ve done it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,6495,176605,244452,85,6494,63570,2845],"class_list":["post-716227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-paul-seixas","tag-pinarello-q36-5-pro-cycling-team","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tom-pidcock","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716227","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=716227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}