Tom Pidcock admits to struggles dealing with death of Gino Mäder: "Descending is something I love, but someone I race with died descending and it hit home quite hard"

Tom Pidcock's 2022 Tour de France stage win atop Alpe d'Huez, was an incredibly memorable victory, as much for his performances on the downhill as it was on the climbs. After the tragic death of Gino Mäder on a Tour de Suisse descent though, Pidcock admits he was hit hard.

"Descending is something I love, but someone I race with died descending and it hit home quite hard," the 23-year-old, who will return to the Tour de France again this year with the INEOS Grenadiers, told BBC Sport. "Risks are involved in cycling. [Serious accidents] don't happen often but it can go wrong and I guess we do what we can to mitigate those risks. But they'll never be gone."

Following the death of Mäder in Switzerland, various figures in the cycling world voiced opinions about limiting the amount of high-speed descending that should be done in races. As someone who is widely regarded as one of the best descenders in the peloton, Pidcock believes the discipline to be an essential part of bike racing.

"Obviously, it was a very emotional day for everyone in cycling and especially in Suisse and his team-mates and family," he explains. "Descending is part of our sport and, unless we all want to race around motor racing circuits, we have to accept we will be racing down descents and I guess this was a bit of a fluke - a tailwind into a corner that wasn't so sharp, but then it closed in a little bit."