{"id":253055,"date":"2025-10-31T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253055\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T20:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T20:36:09","slug":"tom-pidcock-bounces-back-to-claim-summit-finish-at-gravel-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253055\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock bounces back to claim summit finish at Gravel Burn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The stage was almost literally written for Tom Pidcock. A long drag leading into the first summit finish at the first Gravel Burn. The Q36.5 rider obliged and followed the script, escaping the race leaders to claim a summit finish win on Swaershoek Pass near Cradock in the Eastern Cape., his first at the new gravel stage race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked to me to be the easiest stage, with only one climb to do,\u201d said Pidcock, \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u00a0thought I would have a go. But it was actually Alistair Brownlee\u2019s idea. He persuaded me\u2026 Right\u00a0at the end of the stage, he told me to go for it, so I did.<\/p>\n

After ending his official race season with a heavy, gravel world championships and Il Lombardia double-header<\/a> weekend, Pidcock had been taking a more leisurely approach at Gravel Burn through the opening stages. Some had suggested, apparently, that the two-time Olympic champion might have a go at actually racing while in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has been saying to me, \u2018You\u00a0should try to win a stage\u2019. But the riding is tough. I have been suffering all year. I don\u2019t want to\u00a0suffer here!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>How can you tell its a Cape Epic-related production? Helicopters. stage 4 of Nedbank Gravel Burn stage race from Blaauwater to Blaauwater, Eastern Cape, South Africa on 29 October 2025. Photo by Bruce Viaene\/Gravel Burn<\/p>\n

One rider who is suffering at Gravel Burn is Canada\u2019s Andrew L\u2019Esperance. The Forward Racing rider is pushing through intense gastrointestinal issues for a third straight day to finish the race. With Pidcock\u2019s win on Stage 5, and his casual start to the event, the Brit moves one position ahead L\u2019Esperance. They now sit 29th and 30th overall.<\/p>\n

Behind, the race leaders seemed content to keep the pace under control. After making their way to the climb as a group, Matthew Beers, current leader lost a small margin to second-place rider, Simon Pellaud.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI didn\u2019t feel bad, but the heat definitely affected me today. Coming up to the climb, Simon\u00a0attacked me there. I knew he would, so I just had to hold my own pace and not get overexcited. I\u00a0lost about 24 seconds in the end. It sucks to lose the time, but it could have been worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Haley<\/a>Haley Smith leads out the women\u2019s field on Stage 4. Photo: Bruce Viaene
\nHeat and fatigue settle in for women\u2019s leaders trade stage wins<\/p>\n

If the men were slow approaching the climb, the women followed their cues. Five days into the first Gravel Burn, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio was happy to spend her first day in the leader\u2019s jersey protecting advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit slow at times, which I guess is unique to gravel racing. In road\u00a0racing, we have teams for a reason, so that when someone is tired, someone else can go to the\u00a0front and push,\u201d Moolman-Pasio said, explaining the day\u2019s pace. \u201cIn gravel, we are all individuals, so if there isn\u2019t a collective decision to push the\u00a0pace, it doesn\u2019t seem to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stage win on day five went to the woman who\u2019d held the leader\u2019s jersey up until that point: Axelle Dubau-Prevot. After suffering through a mechanical on Day 4, the French woman looked back on form the next morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still feel so good \u2013 maybe I even feel too good, and that\u2019s why I got too excited yesterday,\u201d said\u00a0a considerably happier Dubau-Prevot at the end of Stage 5. \u201cToday I decided to do what I do\u00a0best, and that was just concentrate on riding well. I honestly feel like I am a new rider every day,\u00a0like I am starting a new race every morning and not in the middle of a stage race.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The day prior, though, It was Moolman-Pasio taking advantage of a hard, strategic day of racing. A smaller group of the top leaders escaped, meaning racing was still full-on when Dubau-Prevot suffered a flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a really eventful day,\u201d said Moolman-Pasio. \u201cA small group got away quite early, and\u00a0we kind of stuck together throughout the day. Today, all the women were working together, so\u00a0that was fantastic to see and made for great riding. Around the midway point of the race, there\u00a0was attacking and counterattacking, and that spiced things up a little bit. Lauren carried out a\u00a0few attacks. Axelle was also really pushing it on the descents \u2013 and that\u2019s when she punctured.\u00a0It\u2019s really unfortunate for her. I have the GC lead now, but it\u2019s not a nice way to do it. She\u2019s been\u00a0so strong, so it\u2019s very unlucky. Haley Smith also crashed, so a few things were happening out\u00a0there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As mentioned, Canada\u2019s Haley Smith is fighting among the leaders. The Trek Driftless racer held onto fifth place on GC through four days of racing. Stage five\u2019s summit finish saw Smith drop one position, finishing sixth on the stage and conceding fifth overall to stage-winner Dubau-Prevot. Fellow Canuck, Alison Jackson, finished 13th on the stage.<\/p>\n

Three days of racing remain at the Nedbank Gravel Burn in South Africa<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stage was almost literally written for Tom Pidcock. A long drag leading into the first summit finish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[92133,113108,117919,117920,49,48,635,117921,117922,117923,82,43201],"class_list":["post-253055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alison-jackson","tag-andrew-lesperance","tag-ashleigh-moolman-pasio","tag-axelle-dubau-prevot","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-gravel-events","tag-gravel-news","tag-haley-smith","tag-sports","tag-tom-pidcock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}