"He’s still going to improve": Pidcock's coach has great expectations following Sanremo show

Tom Pidcock has been on a cloud nine ever since he joined Q36.5 Pro Cycling. Those who thought the 26-year-old Brit had no more aces up his sleeve after a breakthrough season with runner-up result at Strade Bianche and third place at Vuelta a Espana, couldn't be more wrong. Further stepping up his game at the Milano-Sanremo, Pidcock surpassed even two-time winner Mathieu van der Poel to come half a wheel short in a sprint for La Primavera crown against world champion Tadej Pogacar.

And despite some sourness after the defeat, it's a great sign for the races to come - Volta a Catalunya, the Ardennes triptych and later this summer the Tour de France.

"Tom, for me, is an example of continuous work," Pidcock's coach Kurt Bogaerts told Cycling Weekly after Milano-Sanremo. "He searches his limits every year. With workload and intensity, it’s building on the year before and progressing on that. That’s what Tom does already year after year, and that’s where you see a continuous trend of improving."

"In the last years, his physical strength has really come up," Bogaerts said. "People in the beginning maybe thought he did a lot on skills, but I never saw him like that, to be honest. If, as a junior, you win the World Championships time trial [as Pidcock did in 2017], then already at a young age you show a lot of physical capabilities."

Even though this year is Pidcock's sixth season of racing at the highest level, the growth during his stint at INEOS and now Q36.5 has been remarkable. The Brit has gone from a mountain bike/cyclocross specialist through one-day race road star to a serious GC contender at Grand Tours. And he displays no signs of slowing down for the time being.

"He’s still young – he’s 26 – so the better years are ahead of him," the coach said. "I think he’s still going to improve [over the next] couple of years. That’s what I predict. Of course, that goes hand in hand with continuing doing the work and continuing having a good work ethic, and having a bit of luck also."

Many analysts will claim the crash before Cipressa - in which Pogacar, Van der Poel and Wout Van Aert were caught up - had helped Pidcock enormously in conserving energy for Pogacar's expected acceleration on Cipressa, but the Brit was also able to counter his Slovenian rival later on Poggio, confirming that his result was not a fluke.

Then it came down to a one-on-one sprint. Could've Pidcock done anything to off-set his opponent? "I think not much, to be honest," Bogaerts said to Cycling Weekly.

"I think he executed really well, rode really maturely, co-operated where he needed to co-operate. With a sprint, I think you can say many things. I think he had a strategy, and the other one [Pogačar] was just a little bit faster. I don’t think he could have done much more than he did."

"Tadej is a really good bike rider and he has good skills. He prepared this race to the smallest detail. I think that would not be smart [to attack on the descent], and likely would have ended up in a crash, maybe for both of them. That’s knowing that your competitor is well prepared and having respect for your competitor. They went fast downhill – even a few times, it was definitely fast enough."

But the gap to 'alien' Pogacar had definitely become smaller the last Saturday. At least for Pidcock. That's something he and Bogaert can build upon in next weeks and months. And who knows, maybe it'll be Pidcock to upset Pogacar instead. "He could've won the race, it was definitely possible," Bogaerts concludes.