"I wish I’d stretched it out a bit more" - Tom Pidcock left with tinge of regret on stage 17 of 2025 Giro d'Italia

Continuing in his attempts to ride for the general classification as long as possible at the 2025 Giro d'Italia, Tom Pidcock had a good, solid day on stage 17, rising three places in the GC to 13th, now just 2:09 down on his goal of a Top-10 by the time the race reaches Rome.

“They’re smashing the hell out of each other," exhaled Pidcock in his post-stage interview after crossing the line in 11th, 1:10 on the stage winner Isaac del Toro. As for his chances of hunting down the top-10 over the coming days? "I don’t know, we’ll see. I mean, I don’t know where everyone else finished today, but, yeah – let’s see.”

After having initially been gapped at the top of the Mortirolo climb, Pidcock did what he did best on the descent, going downhill like an absolute demon to get back into contention with the main GC favourites group. Reflecting on the descent afterwards though, the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team leader had a tinge of regret at having not pushed things even further.

“I went over the top just behind Egan Bernal and Adam Yates. I was with Michael Storer," explains the former Tour de France stage winner. "I dropped Storer – but I didn’t go that fast. I was a bit frustrated at the bottom; I wish I’d gone past everyone and stretched it out a bit more. But no, I just left it to them and you know, I'm not going anywhere on that sort of finish. It was basically 25k uphill.”

Overall though, Pidcock is retaining positivity. “I think it’s good, you know – I’m still in the game," analyses the British star. "I’m being pretty consistent. Haven’t quite got the level of the top guys, but… yeah, I can be happy,” Pidcock concludes.