This interview was originally published in Rouleur Issue 108, January 2022, support our journalism by subscribing here.
Tom Pidcock will at Rouleur Live 2022 on Friday 4th November, buy tickets here.
The air hockey table fires up; game on. The Ineos Grenadiers press officer flicks her wrist and fires the puck with her striker – straight down the middle into the goal. Immediately, Tom Pidcock is one down. A flicker of surprise crosses his face. But it’s only a battle lost, not the war. Lo and behold, the born competitor within has been awoken; he knuckles down, focuses and emerges on top.
This is not a man used to tasting defeat. You name it, the 22-year-old can do it with aplomb: road, mountain bike, cyclo-cross, arcade games, even running and unicycle riding. To call him versatile feels almost insulting.
In a racing season full of highlights in different cycling disciplines, Olympic mountain-bike cross country gold stands out. “It was a big, big deal – more than just the fact that it was the Olympics,” says Pidcock. “Because I broke my collarbone, and then I worked so hard for two months. When you’re injured, it’s just so much more intense.” The surgeon gave Pidcock a conservative recovery estimate of six weeks; he was back on the bike in six days. After his victory, Pidcock duly sorted out a signed, framed jersey for the man who had enabled his race against time.
Pidcock certainly made the most of his 365 days in 2021. He raced cyclo-cross through winter, taking three World Cup podiums and a Superprestige victory. On his road debut, as a first-year pro with Ineos Grenadiers at Het Nieuwsblad in March, he followed the decisive mid-race attacks, astonishing his team managers. In April, he outsprinted Wout van Aert at Brabantse Pijl and lost the Amstel Gold Race to his Belgian rival by a miniscule margin. May saw a MTB World Cup triumph in Slovenia. That broken collarbone in early June did not mean shattered Olympics dreams, but little wonder he was tired when the Vuelta came round.
Meet Tom Pidcock at Rouleur Live 2022
Pidcock is like a kid at the controls of an amusement arcade robotic grab claw, with the potential to nonchalantly pick up cycle sport’s biggest races and deposit them in his lap.
Not only is the Yorkshireman here to stay but, as we discovered when we put Rouleur readers’ questions to him, he has a lot to say – and a great sense of humour. Just don’t test it by taking his Strava KoM…
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