There's something different about Tom Pidcock at this Vuelta a España. It's not just the tenacity, the best-ever general classification performance or the improved climbing legs, but a relaxed demeanour. It belies the fact that he might be under more pressure than ever; never before has the 26-year-old been this high up overall at a Grand Tour, and for a fifth day in a row he maintained it.
It wasn't just on any stage, either, but on stage 13, which finished on the Alto de L'Angliru, 12.4km at 9.7%, but with more than 5km over 11%. It's not for the faint-hearted.
"It’s a hard climb innit," Pidcock of Q36.5 Pro Cycling said at the finish. "It was super tough. Finding the rhythm there it’s unforgiving, at the start I was ok, but I knew I couldn’t continue that pace to the top. I think everyone slowed down, I think I only lost a minute and 20 or something. I just tried to do my own pace, but you can’t really, [I was] just fighting the whole way up, you don’t really get in a rhythm.:
The Yorkshireman did lose more than a minute to stage winner João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and also 48 seconds to Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and 24 seconds to Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
However, his measured effort on the vertiginous slopes saw him hang onto third place overall, and this was not the end of his charge for the podium, or at least the top five in Madrid. Either would be a big deal.
"Not bad, I didn’t lose too much time," Pidcock said of his day. "I’d have liked to be at the front, but we’ve also got to be realistic, I think I did pretty good.
"I think I did a pretty good effort considering how long it was, but yeah I’ve broken numerous power records at this Vuelta, up to 20 minutes, half an hour."
The Angliru is the toughest climb of this Vuelta, but there are still four summit finishes at this race left, including stage 20's Bola de Mundo, 12.4km at 8.6%. There's also the small matter of a 27.2km time trial on stage 18.
"It is a little bit of an anomaly, but it tells us stuff to come," Pidcock said. "Hindley is obviously pretty strong, Gall is strong on longer climbs, so of course it tells us something."
This is a big learning experience, but also encouraging for the remaining tests. "I’m recovering pretty well, obviously it’s getting late in the race, so it’s taking its toll," he concluded.
