At this week's Tour of the Alps, Tom Pidcock makes his return to racing following a serious crash at the Volta a Catalunya. The Briton will miss La Flèche Wallonne, where he finished third last year, but he's still on course to challenge at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.
In an interview with Tuttobiciweb and other media ahead of the Tour of the Alps, which runs for five days from Monday to Friday, Pidcock spoke about safety issues in cycling.
Pidcock suffered knee ligament damage in his crash in Catalunya, which saw him fall down a ravine at 60kph, with poorly positioned road signs among the contributing factors. Thankfully, he didn't lose consciousness and was able to alert his team car via his radio.
A rider losing consciousness in a crash – like Muriel Furrer at the 2024 World Championships – wouldn't be able to do so, a major factor in the UCI's push to implement GPS in the peloton to track crashed riders.
"Safety is always a sensitive issue. I get the impression that the changes made haven’t actually made the sport safer, but were implemented without any real justification," Pidcock said.
"The key, in my view, is technology. If there were no radios... I can understand the reasons for wanting to get rid of them, but from a safety perspective, they are essential."
He'll return for the start of the Tour of the Alps in Innsbruck on Monday, not having changed his outlook on racing as a result of his crash. He called the fall a result of "a series of unfortunate circumstances", rather than an outcome to live in fear day after day.
"I don’t think that crash will affect me or worry me ahead of the upcoming races. A series of unfortunate circumstances came together, and that’s why I fell; fortunately, it’s unlikely that they’ll all happen every day," he said.
Pidcock said that his Pinarello-Q36.5 team had wanted him to race Flèche, held on Wednesday, but Pidcock said he doesn't yet feel at 100% fitness and form he'd need to challenge on the Mur de Huy.
"My condition is good; the team actually wanted me to do La Flèche Wallonne, but there you really have to be 100%, you can’t hide, and I preferred to come here to do longer climbs, which are what I need to improve. After that, we’ll head to Liège–Bastogne–Liège and see how it goes," Pidcock said.
"I still don’t know how I’m feeling, but [stage 1] is already quite an explosive stage, so I’ll quickly get a sense of what my ambitions might be this week."
