Tom Pidcock is not a rider to hide his ambitions and after taking an unexpected ninth place in the Vuelta a España's opening sprint stage on Saturday, he's aiming to be back in the fray again on Sunday's radically different terrain.
Stage 2 of the Vuelta features its first of no less than 11 summit finishes, but on a day with no classified climbs prior to the last Cat.2 ascent to Limone Piemonte, a knack for good positioning and a scorchingly fast uphill turn of speed, not to mention good form, will likely all be necessary for victory. And the Q36.5 leader certainly tickets all three of those boxes.
A recent stage win in the uphill finish at the Tour of Norway, not to mention that top ten finish in Novara are signs that Pidcock is in great shape. On top of which, as he agreed before the Vuelta stage 1 on Saturday, the Piemonte finish, with three kilometres of steady rising road followed by a steeper finale, looks to be right up his street.
"Yeah, it does," Pidcock confirmed to Cyclingnews when asked if the final Cat.2 ascent suited him, "so let's see. I always take some time to get into races, but I had a decent summer, good races, Norway obviously very good, so yeah we'll see."
While he doesn't know the climb in itself from any previous racing, he said he can count on full support from the team to be placed well for a final acceleration.
"Tomorrow, we'll go for the stage, we'll go for the best result we can, and everyone's committed to that," he said.
General Classification Ambitions
Pre-race, Pidcock's coach Kurt Bogaerts told Cyclingnews that Pidcock has committed himself to trying for a top GC placing, but the stage win is the primary goal. And Pidcock himself confirmed that. Limone Piemonte, of course, would work for both those goals, as well as most likely putting Pidcock into the overall lead.
"If I can achieve that, it's a big step, of course," Pidcock added, "But along the way I want to win, that'd be the biggest success."
"It'd be nice racing for a high GC, but you don't feel like you're winning."
While adding a sixth success - and second straight WorldTour win for Q36.5 after their stunning victory with Rory Townsend in the Cyclassics Hamburg - is therefore the immediate priority, Pidcock's GC goals will likely face their biggest challenge prior to Andorra in the 24 kilometre stage 5 team time trial in Figueres
As he agreed, that is likely to be something of a baptism of fire given the presence of WorldTour squads who have made TTT something of an inhouse speciality. All the same Q36.5 are ready to give it everything.
"It'll be the first team time trial I'll have done as a pro," he said. "I did one [as an amateur] back in the Tour de l'Avenir and one in the Tour of Britain."
"We've done a few good practice sessions, we're pretty limited as it's not like we're as well-drilled as maybe some of the bigger teams. But we've done all we can, and we'll give it a go."
First to come, though, is Limone Piemonte, where Pidcock will be hoping to shine on his own account. And if he gets a top result there, the Vuelta will already have been a success.
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