{"id":82461,"date":"2025-08-20T12:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82461\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T12:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:56:08","slug":"can-tom-pidcock-become-a-gc-contender-at-la-vuelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82461\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Tom Pidcock become a GC contender at La Vuelta?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Pidcock targeting a Grand Tour podium<\/p>\n

In December 2024, it was announced he would be leaving Ineos, despite signing a five-year contract in 2022, and shortly afterwards, a three-year deal was struck with Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. The decision raised more than a few eyebrows as Q36.5 are a UCI ProTeam, meaning they compete at the second-highest level of pro road cycling, just below WorldTour teams. But from his results this year, Pidcock may have been vindicated.<\/p>\n

In his first race for his new team, the 26-year-old claimed his first GC triumph at the AlUla Tour. He then finished third overall at the Vuelta a Andalucia, second in the Strade Bianche, and 16th in the Giro d\u2019Italia general classification standings. He also won the MTB cross-country European Championship title and the Andorra World Cup race.<\/p>\n

Now, with Q36.5 being awarded a wildcard place at the Vuelta, Pidcock has chosen to skip the MTB Worlds in September – and another potential battle with his old rival Mathieu van der Poel – to see if he can take the next step in his development and challenge for a Grand Tour podium place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame, because I would have loved to race, especially to battle Mathieu, but I want to focus more on the road and we\u2019re building up our team,\u201d Pidcock told De Telegraaf<\/a>. \u201cSo it makes sense for me to ride the Vuelta.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting on the podium would be amazing, but winning a Grand Tour is the hardest thing in the world for me. I know what it\u2019s like to win a one-day race, but a Grand Tour? That\u2019s a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy time trial still needs to improve a lot, but maybe I can aim for a top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

A podium place may seem unlikely, but then again, Pidcock likes nothing better than beating the odds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock targeting a Grand Tour podium In December 2024, it was announced he would be leaving Ineos,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-82461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82461","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=82461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}