"Today was all about getting it right": Tom Pidcock shares his thought about stage 4 of Volta ao Algarve win and GC ambitions

Cycling
Saturday, 18 February 2023 at 17:46
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Tom Pidcock has conquered the Alto do Malhão climb. The 23 years old INEOS-Grenadiers superstar not only won stage 4 of Volta ao Algarve the most difficult one, and also become the new leader of the general classification of the race.

"It feels wonderful, as a team, we messed up two stages this race that we could have won. On Friday, for example, we could have won with Ganna. And on the second day we did a brilliant job, but in the final kilometre we messed it up. So today was all about getting it right", said Pidcock in the post race interview.

Pidcock launched a powerful attack on the last 1.5 km only to be caught around the last 500 meters by a group commanded by João Almeida of Team UAE Emirates. João Almeida in his usual way of racing from the bottom to the top looked the strongest but Pidcock launched another powerful attack enough to beat him and conquer the Alto do Malhão climb.

"I went on and thought the finish was at the top of the straight, but we had to turn left and it was another seven hundred metres. I thought: pff. I had a feeling someone else was coming up, but in a situation like that you just go full throttle, no matter what happens next", he said.

With this win, and with Magnus Cort Nielsen losing 43 seconds to the British, Pidcock become the new leader of the general classification 5 seconds ahead of Ilan Van Wilder and 7 seconds ahead of João Almeida. There aren't many evidences about what Pidcock is capable for time trials and the main favourite to win the race now is actually his teammate Filippo Ganna who sits just 32 seconds behind and is known for his impressive time trial skills.

"There is nothing to plan for a time trial; just go full throttle." he concluded about the time trial on tomorrow's stage.

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