{"id":68442,"date":"2025-08-14T07:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68442\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T07:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:19:09","slug":"a-grand-tour-is-hardest-thing-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68442\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A grand tour is hardest thing for me’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”><\/p>\n

Tom Pidcock<\/a> is putting his mountain bike back in storage and preparing for his second grand tour of 2025 with a tilt at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Q36.5 Pro Cycling<\/a> star \u2014 who won the European championships and the Andorra World Cup stop in mountain biking this summer \u2014 is setting a high bar for the Spanish grand tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting on the podium would be amazing, but winning a grand tour is the hardest thing in the world for me,\u201d Pidcock told De Telegraaf<\/a>. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to win a one-day race, but a grand tour? That\u2019s a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s inner circle believes that he can develop into a grand tour rider, and despite a return to the single track this summer, he will be skipping the mountain bike worlds in September in what might have been a superstar clash on dirt with Mathieu van der Poel.<\/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 he said. \u201cSo it makes sense for me to ride the Vuelta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock returned to road racing at the Arctic Race of Norway last week, winning his first road race since February<\/a> and finishing second overall.<\/p>\n

Road worlds clash with Poga\u010dar
\n\"Pidcock\"Pidcock won the MTB European championship this summer but will not race in the MTB worlds, opting for the Vuelta instead. (Photo: Piotr Staron\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Racing two grand tours in one season is part of Q36.5\u2019s master plan for Pidcock, and the team is hoping for a Tour de France invite in 2026.<\/p>\n

A strong showing at the Vuelta would go a long way convincing Tour de France<\/a> owners ASO that the team is worthy of one of the coveted wild card invitations next summer.<\/p>\n

Pidcock confirmed he will race for GC at the Spanish grand tour and not just save his legs for select days in a bid to win a stage.<\/p>\n

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

In May, Pidcock rode to 16th overall at the Giro d\u2019Italia, not quite as good as his career best grand tour hit out with 13th in the 2023 Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Pidcock also confirmed he will be racing in Rwanda for the 2025 UCI road worlds, setting up a rematch with Strade Bianche winner and defending world champion Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pidcock is a big-name confirmation for the first road world championships in Africa after several high-profile riders, including Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot have confirmed they will not start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”> Tom Pidcock is putting his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,43199,13633,1178,43200,82,1422,43201,36378,32801],"class_list":["post-68442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-giro-ditalia","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-mountain-bike","tag-q36-5-pro-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tom-pidcock","tag-uci-road-world-championships","tag-vuelta-a-espana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68442","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=68442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}