After finishing third at the Vuelta a España, Tom Pidcock and his Q36.5 team are already dreaming of future Grand Tour success, and plotting how they can close the gap to the top step of the podium.
Despite being up against tough opposition in Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida and Jai Hindley, and being a relative newcomer to serious Grand Tour GC campaigns, Pidcock defied even his own expectations to finish third, his best overall across three weeks.
“This is only the Vuelta, but it’s a step in the right direction for Tom with the numbers he was doing,” Pidcock’s long-term coach Kurt Bogaerts told The Cycling Podcast. “I think his body got a signal that it can recover during stages.”
“We are three minutes from the winner,” he said, referencing Pidcock’s deficit to Jonas Vingegaard. “And now we know that if we will potentially win a Grand Tour one of these days, we need to close a minimum of three to four minutes. I think that’s an achievable gap.”
“It’s probably the biggest achievement of my career so far… this third place feels like a win. But it also makes me believe I could fight for more in the future.”
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