"We saw Jonas sit back down and shake his head" - British pundits thrilled with Tom Pidcock's Vuelta attacks

Tom Pidcock is in extraordinary form and unlike the Giro d'Italia, he is showing his very best level at the Vuelta a Espana. Thus far he is on the podium together with Jonas Vingegaard and João Almeida, but in the punchy stage into Bilbao he even attacked the duo and got closer to the Portuguese, leaving Great Britain thrilled over his Grand Tour potential.

"That, for me, is a moral win anyway. I think he would’ve put Jonas away in the sprint, but we’ll never know. He turned himself inside out there, you could see the grimace on his face," Matt Stephens said for TNT Sports.

The stage's finale was neutralized and that came as a huge disappointment for the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team rider, but that did not prevent him from taking time on his direct rivals. Pidcock attacked the Alto de Pike, dropping everyone but Jonas Vingegaard in an impressive display of power.

"We saw Jonas sit back down and shake his head and we saw his gritted teeth as well. We very rarely see Jonas in that sort of position. But for him to be pure Tom Pidcock, halfway through a Grand Tour and tear it apart like that is absolutely fantastic."

The Dane then got back together on the descent and the two worked to gain 10 seconds on Almeida, but there was ultimately no stage winner, a disappointment for both. But Adam Blythe was nevertheless thrilled about what had happened on the climb.

"I’m buzzing about that. That is the first time Jonas Vingegaard has been distanced this race and the only other man to distance him is none other than Tadej Pogacar, so I am excited. Tom Pidcock is now a GC rider! 100%, through and through," he argues, although the race is only on it's 11th day and the most difficult mountain stages have not yet begun.

"The performance that Tom’s done in here, if this was the Tour De France we would be shouting from the rooftops about what’s just happened but because it’s the Vuelta, we look at it differently. But there’s no beating around the bush, he’s just dropped Jonas Vingegaard, one of the best Grand Tour riders in the past 10-15 years".

There won't be more explosive stages such as this where Pidcock may be able to make the difference, except for perhaps the 16th stage in Galicia. Now the Briton is going to have to handle the mountains, with the arrival to the high mountains finally on stage 13 with the Alto de l'Angliru right away.

"We really have to get behind that performance that Tom’s done because I think that arguably that will be a performance that Tom will put above a lot of things. We’ve got a lot longer climbs coming up which are more difficult for Tom but the mental battle he’s got against Almeida and Jonas, this is the most important for me that he will have confidence and the others will start to look at him in a 'can’t let him go now' way".