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.
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.
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