{"id":423717,"date":"2026-02-13T14:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423717\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T14:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:21:07","slug":"to-race-its-not-the-most-enjoyable-tom-pidcock-says-he-wasnt-exactly-excited-by-prospect-of-tour-de-france-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423717\/","title":{"rendered":"‘To race, it’s not the most enjoyable’ \u2013 Tom Pidcock says he wasn’t ‘exactly excited’ by prospect of Tour de France return"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an tumultuous relationship with the Tour de France<\/a>, Tom Pidcock<\/a> has said he \u201cwasn\u2019t exactly excited\u201d to hear his team, Pinarello-Q36.5, will be at the race this year<\/a>, but he will go with the aim of enjoying himself.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old won a stage on Alpe d\u2019Huez on his Tour debut<\/a> in 2022, but turned to target the general classification with Ineos Grenadiers in the subsequent two years, which he \u201cdidn\u2019t really enjoy\u201d, he said at the end of 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Now, in an interview with The Observer<\/a>, Pidcock made clear he needs to \u201crefind that excitement for the Tour\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s such high pressure and expectations from external people, but also internally, from teams. In our team, I think it will be different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main goal is to go there and have fun and enjoy it and I think that will bring success. Obviously, we\u2019re going to have to train our balls off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, his first season with Q36.5, the Brit put in a career-best Grand Tour performance when he finished third at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a>. His best result at the Tour came in 2023, when he finished 13th.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re competing just to stay in the top 10, I struggle to find the motivation to do that and have to \u00adbattle [with] that for three weeks. It\u2019s just draining,\u201d he told The Observer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think if we can go and enjoy the stress of the Tour, then that will help change my mindset back to how it should be.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Tour] is the biggest race in the world. It\u2019s the race that inspired me when I was young. It\u2019s inspiring probably millions of other kids, but to race, it\u2019s not the most enjoyable. Hopefully we can change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock missed the Tour last season due to the fact Q36.5 did not receive an invite. The team qualified their place for the 2026 edition as one of the top-two-ranked ProTeams, a status that gives them automatic invites to all three Grand Tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a massive opportunity,\u201d Pidcock said in a team press release last month<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve had ups and downs in the Tour de France the last years, so it\u2019s nice now, with this new team, to earn our own place there. It\u2019s the biggest stage we have to race on. With that comes so much baggage but I think in this team they help me carry it all.”<\/p>\n

The Olympic mountain bike champion opens his road season on Friday at the two-stage Vuelta a la Regi\u00f3n de Murcia. He will then race a full Classics campaign, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad<\/a>, Strade Bianche<\/a>, Milan-San Remo<\/a>, Amstel Gold Race<\/a> and Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>, before heading to Barcelona for the start of the Tour on 4 July.<\/p>\n

Explore More<\/p>\n


\nTom Pidcock
\n<\/a>
\n
\nTour de France
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an tumultuous relationship with the Tour de France, Tom Pidcock has said he \u201cwasn\u2019t exactly excited\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-423717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}