Exhausted but delighted, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) was able to celebrate a breakthrough GC success at the Vuelta a España on Saturday as the Briton managed to fend off Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on the difficult final mountain top finish of La Bola del Mundo.
Pidcock was sometimes seemingly struggling on the rough cement upper slopes of the Bola del Mundo, but he was nonetheless able to hold on despite Hindley's repeated application of the pressure at the front of the red jersey group.
He finally crossed the finish line just five seconds adrift of the Australian as the group chasing stage winner - and now all but certain Vuelta a España outright champion Jonas Vingegaard - finally splintered.
The seven-second time loss with Hindley only slightly dented Pidcock's advantage on the podium, and barring major disaster, he will finish tomorrow's stage on Sunday as the first Briton since Hugh Carthy in 2020 to land on the Vuelta a España podium.
"To be honest, I'm really proud of myself, it's the biggest performance of my career," Pidcock told Eurosport and Vuelta a España TV.
"It's maybe not my biggest single win, I'm bit exhausted, so I can't find any words, but the best thing is now I can just relax."
Pidcock came into the race looking for stage wins as well as overall success, and he came within a whisker of taking a Vuelta stage victory at Bilbao, only for the day's finish to be brought forward by three kilometres because of pro-Palestine protests, with no winner declared on the day.
However, as he continued to remain in contention for the podium, if the top two spots seemed destined to go to either João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) or Vingegaard, he came through each day's racing looking more and more on track for third.
The final day's racing was not easy, Pidcock said, but despite looking and feeling drained of energy - like all the riders - at the summit, his sense of making a major breakthrough was clear.
"I'm just more tired than anything, this morning I was super up for today. I'd had two easier days - well a TT's not easy but short, and then it [stage 20] was a one-day race which is what I'm good at," Pidcock recounted.
"I think it was hard to find a rhythm on such steep climbs, with that surface, but I knew I was still in control. I didn't want to go over the limit, all I had to do was stay within that."
Pidcock has one day's racing remaining, but he is already logically moving towards celebration mode. As he said, now was an opportunity to relax a little.
"All day you're so focussed, so switched on for the race, now can I just enjoy myself. I don't need to put this bloody jacket on and drink cherry juice."
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