"I was getting really frustrated..." - Tom Pidcock honest about missed opportunities but happy with final Andalucia win

Tom Pidcock has, like in 2025, started his season off with great form, but was unable to take much benefit from it. It took seven race days but the leader of Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team has taken his first victory in the season and has been able to final raise his hands in celebration after a few missed opportunities.

The Briton after all committed to a start to the season in Spain, where the races were hilly, the weather sunny and the competition more modest than at the UAE Tour and Volta ao Algarve. But the wind at the Vuelta a Murcia ruined his plans; with UAE Team Emirates - XRG taking the opening stage win, preventing his late attack from succeeding.

But the second stage was cancelled and he didn't have the opportunity to get his revenge. Shortly after at the Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior, he was once again anticipated by UAE and had to settle for second place. In Andalucia he was on the attack and showed good legs, but he and Pinarello were not present on Iván Romeo and Andreas Leknessund GC-winning attack on stage 2.

Hence the overall was gone, even though once again he was the strongest on the road, as proved today in the arrival to Llucena. The peloton headed into the final hilltop in position to fight for the win and Pidcock's uphill attack was strong enough to drop some of the world's best puncheurs directly, and soar to his first win of the stage.

"It feels great, yesterday I was getting really frustrated that we trained so hard this winter, we made a big commitment, we went to Chile... We put in so much work and yeah we missed opportunities here," he said in an honest post-race interview.

In regular conditions, the overall classification could've been won if it was to be decided today, but the Briton was already far behind the eventual winner Iván Romeo. He laments the decisions made on that day: "We made the mistake of judging the parcours here, it wasn't perfect and we let the GC go on one day and I was getting frustrated that we wasted opportunities".

However, before he makes the trip to Belgium for Omloop het Nieuwsblad; and then Italy for the much-awaited Strade Bianche where he should be Tadej Pogacar's biggest rival, he has taken a much-needed win which boosts his confidence.

"Today we took it, the team was great and I finished it off, it makes it all worth while. It's easy to get into the season now that there's one victory in the pocket, so it pushes off a little bit [of pressure]," he concluded.