"He’s world champion, wearing the rainbow jersey and he’s a leadout man basically" - Tom Pidcock empathetic for Mathieu van der Poel's Tour de France frustrations

Although the scene of arguably his most famous win, Tom Pidcock's relationship with the Tour de France has become more difficult over the last couple of years. With the Brit set to be absent from the 2025 edition, Pidcock has opened up on his Tour de France difficulties.

"My first year in the Tour was amazing, of course it was my first experience of it. I won a stage, G [Geraint Thomas] was on the podium. It was great," the former INEOS Grenadiers star recalled on stage at Rouleur Live. "And then the last two years, to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. It was difficult. I didn’t win a stage, as a team we didn’t have as much success as we used to, so it was difficult and I need to refind that feeling I had in the first year to be honest."

Although success at the Tour de France can define a career, similarly the intense pressures of the event can see confidence shattering disappointments. "I think also the expectations grew in the last two years and yeah I didn’t meet them for a multitude of reasons," Pidcock admits honestly. "And then it’s not really enjoyable. You’re always trying to reason with yourself, I guess."

Although the most watched cycling race on the calendar, the Tour de France is far from the only place to a make a name for yourself as a rider. Pidcock isn't the only superstar to become a little disenchanted with the sport's showpiece event in recent years either, with Alpecin-Deceuninck's Mathieu van der Poel also admitted the French Grand Tour is not a race he particularly loves. As it turns out, this is something Pidcock himself has seen first hand.

"I remember one day riding at the back in the Tour and Van der Poel was just in front. I didn’t speak to him, I didn’t say anything, but I could just see from his body language that he was kind of feeling the same as me, in that ‘this is just boring, this is crap’," Pidcock remembers. "He wasn’t enjoying it, even though you’re in the biggest race in the world and there’s thousands of people cheering."

"It’s a bit of a pressure cooker. Every day, there’s eyes on you, there’s questions and it’s just not going how you want it to. Like, before a race you’re asked how you’re expected to go and you have to give an answer that’s positive. You can’t just go ‘I think it’s going to be crap’ and then when it is crap, you have to then answer the questions of why it’s crap," Pidcock explains. "And for him [Van der Poel], it’s probably even worse than me. He’s world champion, wearing the rainbow jersey and he’s a leadout man basically."