Tom Pidcock knows there's only one way to win Strade Bianche: "If Tadej attacks, I will try to follow him"
CyclingFriday, 07 March 2025 at 23:00
Tomorrow's Strade Bianche will have one and only one overwhelming favourite - Tadej Pogacar. Anyone who doubts the World champion's position after last year's 80 km solo victory is either a prediction genius, or simply delusional. Against the odds, few brave men will try to take on the Slovenian. One of them is Tom Pidcock.
"How to beat Pogacar? By being ahead of him at the line," laughs the 25-year-old Brit, Sporza reports. Easier said than done. However if anyone can turn the tides and upset the UAE Emirates rider, then why not Pidcock?
The Brit has been in a seemingly very good form in the early months of this season when he dominated at the AlUla Tour. A result he later followed up with overall podium and a stage win at Vuelta a Andalucia. Omloop hasn't gone well, but tomorrow is a new day.
Not even Pidcock dares to draw a bullet-proof strategy to counter Pogacar. After all - if he's on a good day, he probably cannot be stopped without a literal army. "Tadej is of course Tadej. We know how strong he is. If Tadej attacks, I will try to follow him. Because my goal tomorrow is to win."
Pidcock, who won the Strade Bianche two years ago, is hanging onto a gut feeling that Saturday will be a great day: "In training I didn't feel too good this week. That's usually a good sign for the weekend," he grins. As will be the case through most of this season, Q36.5 Pro Cycling put all faith in their star signing.
The support crew around Pidcock includes fellow mountain biker Milan Vader, young Fabio Christen, or experienced riders such as Gianluca Brambilla and Mark Donovan. Whether it's enough manpower to challenge Pogacar's armada with Isaac Del Toro, Felix Großschartner, Gianni Vermeersch and Tim Wellens? We shall find out on Saturday.
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- If you want good teamwork, don't group Ayuso with Pogacar or Almeida. Ayuso couldn't work well with these 2, especially Almeida.
KerisVroom05-05-2025 - You obviously want to arrange every story to suit your agenda. Your logic here is like claiming we don’t need police because you heard a story of an officer stopping a woman who’s lost her waters for document checking on her way to hospital. It was just a stupid person exploiting his powers, am sure he was not specifically instructed to do this at this event by management in Switzerland. It is far more likely he could have been given some ( maybe financial) incentive by someone to be difficult, cycling isn’t always as friendly a family as it tries to portray.Mistermaumau05-05-2025
- Oh boy, that discussion again. The car fad is what prevents the cycling industry from becoming more creative. NOBODY cares about efficient bike shapes, look at how many people know who did or what the records for HPVs are. Look at what the vast majority of citizens in cycling countries like the Netherlands ride. If normal people, or even amateur cyclists were so interested in efficient biking, they’d be investing in TT bikes or just hacking any bike with 50€ triathlon handlebars instead of wasting 1000s on pseudo marginal gain pro development knock offs. The UCI does wonders for the bike industry, it boomed over the last decade and when it’s not one type, it’s another. In fact, what’s the point of promoting efficient super designed bike shapes when we teach people to be lazy by plonking an e- onto any fashionable shape so they don’t have to pedal at all? And finally, even if the industry sleeps with the UCI when it’s of interest, is it really the UCI’s job to help the bike industry become more progressive, profitable, popular, whatever?Mistermaumau05-05-2025
- Chapeau XDS Astana Team 🫡
James2631805-05-2025 - If anyone still thinks the UCI is a good thing for cycling, I wonder what evidence would be sufficient for convincing them otherwise?acem8205-05-2025
- Yes, the UCI is great at preventing efficient bicycles from getting market traction. What a great service they provide!acem8205-05-2025
- He didn't have the legs to stay with the top guys in case you hadn't read that !frieders305-05-2025
- Of course the dimensions have to be checked as long as pro cycling continues to be defined by a traditional bicycle definition, otherwise you open the door to all sorts of weird vehicles, like recumbants to keep the technical side easy. Obviously there can ve a completely different procedure for the check than how it was carried out here. If all went according to how reported, the team/rider should sue the official/UCI for result manipulation, this incident shows among other things, how the door is (left) wide open to corrupting officials to disadvantage people. Would be so easy to do those checks well without stressing riders. Maybe the triathlon system would be a solution ?Mistermaumau04-05-2025
- Agreed! I had forgotten about that moment, a rare misfire by UAE.RidesHills04-05-2025
- The UCI thinks that all of these formalities make it look like they're in control of things, but incidents like this one actually make them look like bumbling, incompetent fools.
santiagobenites04-05-2025
So he doesn't feel good in training and thinks his best option is to follow the inform Pogi🤦
Sorry, but a lot of cyclists can testify that there is truth to this training/race day paradox.