"Chris Froome was 28 when he won his first Tour and Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas were even 32" - No rush for Tom Pidcock to focus solely on Grand Tours insists coach
Cycling
For the INEOS Grenadiers, chances of winning a Grand Tour in the coming year look somewhat slim. As they look to get back to Tour de France winning contention, Tom Pidcock is often touted as their leading man of the future.
A former winner atop Alpe d'Huez, Pidcock can clearly climb and in his first general classification challenge last year the Brit took a competitive 13th overall. As his coach, Kurt Bogaerts points out in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad though, time is on Pidcock's side. "Chris Froome was 28 when he won his first Tour and Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas were even 32," the coach notes.
A big question mark over Pidcock's Tour de France winning goals however are arguably his multi-discipline capabilities. Would Pidcock need to drop his cyclocross and mountain bike intentions and fully concentrate on Grand Tour riding? Bogaerts isn't so sure. "It will remain that way for a while. It fits in with the bigger picture to win the Tour," he insists.
"He has very few adjustment problems when he switches between cross, road and mountain bike. He will continue to race next winter too," continues Pidcock's coach. "He has become stronger physically and mentally. In modern cycling you are not really allowed to experiment anymore. Yet he does all those disciplines and is allowed to explore the areas."
In 2024, the Tour de France is once again expected to be on Pidcock's calendar. What are the realistic goals for the Brit heading in though? "After Liège-Bastogne-Liège we will take stock. Tom also wants to extend his Olympic mountain bike title. In the Tour we hope he grows and improves and we hope he scores in the classics," says Bogaerts.
"There is a very well thought-out plan behind this that is logically connected, with rest periods. The explosiveness he trains in cyclocross can then become a weapon in lap work in the long term. Once in his strongest years, after the age of 26, he knows where he can score and how to go about it."
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024