“It was the worst day ever on the bike” - Tom Pidcock blunt after Tour of the Alps return

Tom Pidcock’s comeback to racing ended with second place on the opening stage of the Tour of the Alps, but the Briton was in no mood to celebrate after a demanding afternoon around Innsbruck.

Racing for the first time since his heavy crash at Volta a Catalunya, the Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team rider crossed the line behind Tommaso Dati after surviving a hard day over rolling terrain and a selective finale. While many riders would have taken encouragement from such a result after weeks on the sidelines, Pidcock offered a far harsher verdict on his own performance.

“It was the worst day,” he said immediately after finishing, before heading for the bus so he could explain his feelings in more detail. And the British rider did not hide the difficulties he had faced today on the opening day of the Tour of the Alps.

“Terrible, awful,” Pidcock told Domestique. “It was like we were going full gas up every climb, it was the worst day ever on the bike.”

The stage had been animated throughout and the pace remained high across the climbs in the Austrian mountains. Even so, Pidcock consistently held position near the front of the peloton, a sign that his race instincts remain intact despite the interruption to his spring campaign.

When Thymen Arensman attacked late in the stage, Pidcock was among the select group that reacted behind. Once the Dutchman was reeled back in, the reduced bunch sprinted for victory, with Dati proving fastest and Pidcock taking runner-up spot.

Yet the Yorkshireman dismissed any suggestion that second place was a notable achievement under the circumstances. “Yeah, but there’s no sprinters here, so that’s not very difficult, is it?” he said. “I just followed in the wheel. I had no sprint at all.”

Pidcock had not raced since crashing on the descent of Collada Sobirana last month, an incident that initially raised fears his Classics campaign could be over. The injuries included a hairline fracture to his tibia and damage to the anterolateral ligament in his knee.

Those setbacks came at the worst possible moment after an impressive spell that included victory at Milano-Torino and second place at Milan-Sanremo, results that positioned him as one of the riders to watch heading into the Ardennes Classics.

Instead of rushing back, his team opted for a cautious approach. Once the swelling subsided and he was able to resume training, the focus quickly shifted toward regaining condition in time for Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

His inclusion on the Tour of the Alps start list came as a surprise late in the week, but the reasoning was clear: five hard days of racing across Austria and Italy could sharpen his form before one of the biggest one-day races of the season.

With Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and the rest of the elite expected on the start line next Sunday, Pidcock knows he needs race rhythm more than reassurance. For now, he was unwilling to search for silver linings after a painful return. “No, no positives,” he said. “The positive is that it can only get better.”