{"id":540351,"date":"2026-04-20T02:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540351\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:34:21","slug":"medical-marvel-tom-pidcock-on-three-crazy-weeks-physically-and-mentally-and-liege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540351\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical marvel Tom Pidcock on three crazy weeks \u2014 physically and mentally \u2014 and Li\u00e8ge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Pidcock<\/a> should have been in Limburg on Sunday, but while the women and men blasted over the Cauberg at the Amstel Gold Race, the 26-year-old Brit from Pinarello-Q36.5 was flying \u2014 a little later than planned \u2014 to Innsbruck, Austria, for the Tour of the Alps<\/a>. Pidcock added the race to his program after recovering faster than expected from a heavy crash. And that can fairly be called a minor miracle.<\/p>\n

To understand Pidcock\u2019s fall, we have to go back to March 28, stage six of the Volta a Catalunya. The crash itself was not shown on television, but when Pidcock rolled across the finish line almost half an hour behind the winner, it quickly became clear how serious the situation had been. The two-time Olympic mountain bike champion had shot into a ravine on a descent, but somehow climbed back up himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was drinking on the descent and misjudged a corner. I overshot it and went down the ravine. It was like one of these horror crashes you see, but I am okay,\u201d said Pidcock<\/a>. He still rode to the finish, keeping alive the possibility of continuing in Catalonia. But because of the damage, especially to his right knee, that turned out to be impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still consider myself extremely lucky. A stupid mistake to throw away good form, but now it\u2019s just about trying to get back on the bike as quickly as possible,\u201d he said the day after the crash. Pidcock sounded hopeful, but anyone who saw the state of his knee \u2014 and then saw him stretched out on Instagram with a LEGO set \u2014 probably started putting a cautious line through the Ardennes Classics.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s recovery was slow \u2014 until blood was drained from his kneePidcock did not need to say too much about his crash and recovery after the team presentation in Innsbruck, because a few days earlier he had already discussed it in detail by phone with the New York Times<\/a>. First, then, the crash itself: what exactly happened in that ravine after he misjudged the corner and could no longer avoid falling into the depth below?<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a fencing barrier, but I decided not to go for that because I thought, \u2018I\u2019m going to go flying down the mountain into God knows what.\u2019 So instead I aimed for a tree \u2014 it wasn\u2019t much more than a few branches really,\u201d Pidcock recalled. \u201cI landed, and just remember feeling like my arm couldn\u2019t move. My leg was dead. And I was thinking that nobody else had crashed. I was alone down this hill, I didn\u2019t know what I\u2019d hurt because everything was hurting and I couldn\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock feared he might be in the ravine for a long time, but his radio worked \u2014 and, fortunately, not long afterward, so did his legs. \u201cI climbed out,\u201d he said. Once back on the bike, his legs did not even feel too bad. His hand hurt, as did his elbow and shoulder. He thought there was no way that could be right, but the next day it was mainly his knee that had swollen up \u201clike a balloon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pidcock proves to be a medical marvel<\/p>\n

The medical report showed bone bruising, stress fractures in the tibia and damage to several ligaments and bones in the knee. After an additional check in Barcelona, his physio estimated a minimum recovery time of eight weeks. In the first phase, the main priority was rest, reducing the swelling and allowing the damage in the knee to heal by itself. Surgery was not required.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a week I got on the bike for a bit, but that only made it worse,\u201d said Pidcock, who therefore turned his attention to a LEGO set. He also enjoyed time with his fianc\u00e9e and his two dogs. In the end, however, it was not rest that suddenly accelerated the process, but the draining of fluid \u2014 in other words, thick blood \u2014 from the knee. \u201cFrom there, the pain kept decreasing, and so did the swelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

His physio Remi Mobed, also speaking to the New York Times, could hardly believe that Pidcock was able to start the Tour of the Alps just three weeks after the crash. \u201cTom\u2019s mindset allowed us to push the boundaries in his recovery, although he always had to meet certain recovery criteria. He always met those, and often he was already much further along. His work ethic, professionalism and perseverance were the driving forces behind an exceptional recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pidcock is also dreaming of Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge after the Tour of the Alps<\/p>\n

And so, on Saturday evening after the team presentation, IDLProCycling.com suddenly found itself standing opposite a recovered Pidcock. On the day Remco Evenepoel won the Amstel Gold Race, a race Pidcock loves so much, the Brit was in Austria. Asked about his physical condition, he had already said before the weekend: \u201cWe don\u2019t know. I feel pretty good in training; maybe the rest has done me good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it could also come back like a boomerang. I feel better than we thought I would, and that is why I am starting here,\u201d said the all-rounder. With a week of Tour of the Alps ahead of him, Pidcock hopes to combine recovery, improvement and racing rhythm \u2014 while also keeping alive the chance of a strong Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. \u201cLi\u00e8ge was the biggest goal of my spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brabantse Pijl, Amstel and Fl\u00e8che Wallonne have all been crossed off, but that does not necessarily have to be the case for La Doyenne, provided the Tour of the Alps sends the right signals. \u201cI can still take part, although it will be with a different, more relaxed mindset. Everything that comes now is a bonus. Maybe it doesn\u2019t work and I end up completely destroyed, but I have nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

How ready is Pidcock \u2014 physically and mentally \u2014 for his return?The mental side of the past few weeks should not be underestimated either. \u201cI don\u2019t feel any PTSD, because this crash was mainly down to my own misjudgment,\u201d Pidcock said. On Saturday, he added: \u201cIt was an unfortunate combination of circumstances. I\u2019m really not worried about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As unlucky as the crash was, almost everything that followed turned out to be fortunate. Pidcock did not ride for nine days, but: \u201cI\u2019m lucky, because actually by cycling, the body recovered faster. If I hadn\u2019t been a cyclist and hadn\u2019t tried to ride, it would have taken longer. When we noticed that the swelling was actually going down because of cycling, I started training harder again quite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no pain and my shape was actually pretty good when I started again.\u201d Pinarello-Q36.5 even briefly considered a return at Fl\u00e8che Wallonne. \u201cBut there you really have to be at one hundred percent. You can\u2019t hide there. Here I can do longer climbs, and that is exactly where I need to improve. We will know quickly how good I am, and in Li\u00e8ge we will then see how good it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"tom-pidcock\"\/<\/p>\n

Will we see Pidcock win in the Tour of the Alps, as he did in Milan-Turin in March?<\/p>\n

Tom Pidcock remains cautious when it comes to safety<\/p>\n

There is positivity, then, because the impact of such a heavy crash does not appear to have been too great physically or mentally. But will it have any impact on the UCI? Pidcock did not say without reason to the New York Times that things could have ended differently. \u201cYou forget how vulnerable we are. Despite cars, motorbikes and helicopters, I was lying there and nobody knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has not heard from the UCI in recent weeks, but of course Pidcock has followed the ongoing discussion about safety. His own crash was another example. He calls it \u201ca difficult subject.\u201d Measures are being taken that do not harm safety, but with technology, he believes steps can also be made without changing the sport itself.<\/p>\n

This situation also seems different because Pidcock mainly blames himself for the crash. That is where he placed the emphasis then, and where he still places it now. \u201cI was so good \u2014 maybe that was why I crashed. Maybe I was too complacent because I felt so good. It was a weird crash, one that maybe didn\u2019t need to happen. I was too relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock should have been in Limburg on Sunday, but while the women and men blasted over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109589,186358,101,44575,110975,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-540351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-idl-productions","10":"tag-pinarello-q36-5-pro-cycling","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tom-pidcock","13":"tag-tour-of-the-alps","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540351","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=540351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}