![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/ab8ec16a-ed27-4cd0-aba0-a9b88ccc55ba.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOver the next three weeks we will learn a lot more about Tom Pidcock\u2019s potential to become a genuine contender in cycling\u2019s grand tours. While Jonas Vingegaard is the clear favourite to win the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, the final grand tour of the season, Pidcock will be attacking the general classification (GC) of a three-week race with sharper focus than he has done before.<\/p>\n
His status as one of his generation\u2019s most gifted all-round talents is not in doubt, given his two Olympic gold medals in mountain biking, an outstanding record in cyclocross, numerous podium placings in one-day Classic road races and a breathtaking stage win on Alpe d\u2019Huez in the 2022 Tour de France.<\/p>\n
Whether the Yorkshireman, 26, has the physiological tools to compete with the world\u2019s finest on the varied and mountainous terrain of a three-week race \u2014 and, indeed, given his all-round talents, the desire to commit the required time and energy \u2014 has been a steadily unwinding thread in the narrative of his career.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Yorkshireman spoke of his GC aspirations during Thursday\u2019s team presentation in Turin<\/p>\n
MATTEO SECCI\/LAPRESSE\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n
Pidcock\u2019s most recent grand tour, the Giro d\u2019Italia that finished on June 1, was a prime case in point. He entered the race after a spring committed to the Classics, which brought him podium places at Strade Bianche and La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, but without the legs to compete in a grand tour, securing three top-five stage finishes and eventually finishing a creditable 16th, but some way behind the major players.<\/p>\n
His preparation for the Vuelta has been different, opting out of the Tour, spending time instead at altitude camps in Italy and Andorra, where he lives, and tuning up for the Vuelta with an impressive second place at the Arctic Race of Norway a fortnight ago. Now he is intrigued to see how this preparation will boost his fortunes on a course he believes could suit him. \u201cI\u2019m going to go full for the GC, to do the best in the GC as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a pretty nice summer, not so many races, and I feel refreshed. There are shorter climbs, so we\u2019ll see, but hopefully we\u2019ll see some difference from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
To survive at the sharp end of the peloton Pidcock will clearly need solid support from his colleagues at Q36.5, the team he joined this season after four years with Ineos Grenadiers. His time with Ineos ended in disharmonious fashion with the team stating \u201ccompatibility\u201d issues that led to him being dropped from a race at the end of last season. He joined the emerging Q36.5 team as their leading light and a squad is gradually being assembled around him to challenge the bigger teams, including David de la Cruz, the experienced Spaniard, who is riding his 11th Vuelta.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a strong team in general and I am confident for a good team performance,\u201d Alex Sans Vega, the sports director, said. \u201cDavid [de la Cruz] brings experience and knows this race so well. I am curious how far Tom can go in the GC because the course suits him perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his first season with Q36.5 Pidcock has cut a much happier figure in the peloton and his results have been positive, with an early-season victory in the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia followed by his Classics successes and those competitive stages in the Giro. He now approaches his second Vuelta \u2014 his first was a 67th-place finish in his grand-tour debut four years ago \u2014 looking for his best grand-tour finish, which to date was his 13th place in the 2023 Tour. A podium place may be a step too far this year, but a top-ten finish would set him up for stronger challenges in next year\u2019s grand tours.<\/p>\n
![\"Jonas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/8382e752-c69a-43ee-b05b-4001ce9306c8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s Vingegaard, centre, is eyeing a first grand-tour triumph since his 2023 Tour victory<\/p>\n
MARCO BERTORELLO\/AFP<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of stages with profiles that could suit a rider like me, and there\u2019s even a stage in Andorra, quite close to where I live,\u201d Pidcock said. \u201cThe course this year is very diverse but still typical of the Vuelta, with its many uphill finishes. We have a strong team, with riders who each bring their own strengths, a well-rounded group. We\u2019ve prepared well and I\u2019m really looking forward to starting on Saturday with the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the race even reaches Spain the Vuelta will roll along roads of the nations that have already hosted grand tours this year. The start will be held outside Spain for the sixth time and for the first time in Italy, the first stage traversing 183 kilometres of largely flat terrain from Turin to Novara. The first four stages all start in Italy, with the fourth stage crossing the Alps from Susa to Voiron, in France, then the Vuelta actually reaches Espa\u00f1a for a team time-trial in Figueres, near Girona, on Wednesday, before heading to the Pyrenees.<\/p>\n
This is where the GC battle will really begin to take shape, as the likes of Vingegaard, Jo\u00e3o Almeida and Juan Ayuso can begin to demonstrate their climbing abilities. Vingegaard, 28, will be chasing a first Vuelta victory as a consolation for his second consecutive runner-up finish to Tadej Pogacar at the Tour this year. Pogacar is not competing at the Vuelta, giving his distant pursuers a chance after another dominant season, and Vingegaard\u2019s status as the Slovenian\u2019s nearest rival makes him an automatic favourite.<\/p>\n
His form is uncertain, though, having rested his racing legs since the Tour ended less than a month ago, and he will be seeking to become the first rider to win the Vuelta after finishing on the podium in Paris (or Nice) since Primoz Roglic five years ago. That feat has also been achieved by Chris Froome in 2017 and Nairo Quintana a year earlier, but the effects on Vingegaard of a second grand tour in quick succession may become clear only in the later stages of the race.<\/p>\n
Much interest will also surround the performance of Egan Bernal, the Colombian who will lead Ineos over the three-week race to Madrid. Bernal, 28, finished seventh in the Giro this year, his best grand-tour finish since his career was interrupted by a life-threatening crash in 2022. He will be looking to re-establish himself among the sport\u2019s elite, which, along with Pidcock\u2019s attempts to keep similar company and Vingegaard\u2019s pursuit of a first Red Jersey, should make for three weeks of compelling viewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the next three weeks we will learn a lot more about Tom Pidcock\u2019s potential to become a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-365241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115073746515753446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}