"I am going to decide what I want my Tour to be this year. Nobody else" - Tom Pidcock keeps his Tour de France goals to himself
Cycling
Tom Pidcock will not let anyone else tell him what a successful Tour de France will look like this summer. The Olympic mountain bike champion aims to one day win the Tour, but not right now, as the Ineos Grenadiers rider chases multiple goals in other disciplines (mountain bike and cyclocross) as well as in one-day races.
Pidcock’s stage win on the Alpe d’Huez defined his Tour debut in 2022, but last year went somewhat under the radar with 13th overall. What will it be this time? "I am going to decide what I want my Tour to be this year," Pidcock told the PA news agency. "Nobody else. Otherwise you don’t get anything from me. I need to be able to believe in my mission at the Tour."
"I completely understand where I want to be and what I need to do to achieve it. It’s not always simple but the people in my corner, they know how I work."
Long-time leaders and captains of the Brittish team are slowly calling it quits, can a change be felt within the team? "I think the team is going through a big transition period," Pidcock said. "And you do notice that... It’s strange that some of these guys are soon not going to be here anymore. That is weird... It’s nice to have their experience. But I’ve realised I need to gain that experience in their outlook on things and not just leave it to other people."
It means Pidcock will need to take on more of a leadership role, but he will do it his own way. "I’m not used to taking the lead," he said. "I don’t like to kind of lead from a forward position. I kind of like to lead from the back, if you like, to be a bit more quiet, just getting on with my own thing."
Pidcock is an incredibly versatile rider who needs to understand that a 3 week GT at the TdF level is not a multi hour MTB or Cx race at elite level. His inability to recover like a top clasd GC leader and his inconsistency will not allow him to definine his own goals over a 21 stage team race. Last year, because INEOS understood this not one of them.broke a.sweat assigning Pidcock to a leading role on paper to keep the British sponsor and British public happy. They all knew that his ass would be dropped like a sack of rancid potatoes while Carlos and Kwiato surged to brilliant stage wins. I expect the same this year from Pidcock. Lots of fanfare and pre-race hype, from INEOS PR, followed by 1-2 sparkling days where he finishes in the top 5-10, maybe even a stage win, then being dropped/losing time as his body recovers over several days when the serious climbing starts, followed by a SILENT focus on defending his Olympic Mtb title... Like clockwork :-)
So, is he going to getting the support of domestiques in his team if he's to go his own way? I just don't see how this is going to work for a team sport.
They have given him the free role i.e. he is free to do anything but that does not mean his success is decided by him🤣🤣🤦
It's not a good look but it's hard to judge when you can't see the questions which were asked. Also who is interviewing Pidcock ans is the translation of what Pidcock said accurate?
This statement just means he's not a leader "I kind of like to lead from the back, if you like, to be a bit more quiet, just getting on with my own thing." Last year he was apparently hacked-off that Carlos Rodriguez got the support of the team. The reality is if you want support then prepare, ride better than the other guys and lead, otherwise you're just dicking around. Amazing talent but there are hundreds of examples in sport of that not being enough to be the best. Someone needs to call him out.
With the amount of money the team is paying him, maybe he should listen to them a little bit
I think he's very aware and confident in his own approach and he doesn't want to turn himself into a that rider he isn't (Wiggins has already discussed this with Tom when at his team I remember). I think it's hard to win Le Tour not using the train + leader approach, because that's pretty much been the template the last 20 years for Tour winning Teams, but I think as we see with Pogacar, if you do have the ability, you can use your Team in a different way and still win without direct leadership, but it's less-guaranteed. Everyone's obstacle at the moment is Pogacar & Vingo regardless of team, you have to stay on their wheels like other had to on Froome's and if you can't, you will never win without others misfortune imo.
Pidcock not quite the team player! Lets see if he can keep up with Rodriguez in the big mountains to be the GC guy !
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