{"id":915889,"date":"2026-04-24T18:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/915889\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:05:24","slug":"ive-improved-a-lot-more-than-50-tom-pidcock-fires-liege-warning-after-standout-tour-of-the-alps-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/915889\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve improved a lot… More than 50%\u201d \u2013 Tom Pidcock fires Li\u00e8ge warning after standout Tour of the Alps return"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s trajectory across the five stages told the story. After easing his way back into the peloton, he quickly showed signs of progress, building confidence day by day before taking a stage victory and following it up with a second-place finish on his immediate return to racing.<\/p>\n

That upward trend continued into the final stage, where he was again aggressive, making the breakaway and shaping the early part of the race before the general classification battle took over on the final climb. \u201cI felt pretty good. Every day I\u2019m getting better,\u201d Pidcock said in conversation with Cycling Pro Net.<\/a>Measuring progress in real terms<\/p>\n

The most striking element of Pidcock\u2019s assessment was the scale of his improvement across the week. \u201cA lot. More than 50 percent,\u201d he said when asked how much he had progressed during the race. \u201cI would have been dropped on the first climb today at the start of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

That comparison underlines just how quickly his condition has evolved, particularly given the circumstances of his return.<\/p>\n

While he ultimately did not have the legs to remain with the front group in the decisive phase of the final stage, his ability to animate the race earlier in the day and remain competitive deep into the week marked a significant step forward.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Pidcock won stage 3 at the 2026 Tour of the Alps<\/p>\n

Aggressive racing despite limitations<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s presence in the breakaway on Stage 5 also reflected a clear approach to his comeback: race aggressively rather than conservatively. \u201cThe break was not too hard to get into,\u201d he said. \u201cI think Red Bull must sponsor the Austrian team or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

That move placed him among the key protagonists in the early phase of the stage, alongside riders such as Lennart Jasch and Sam Oomen, before the race came back together on the decisive climb. \u201cObviously I didn\u2019t have the legs to stay at the front in the final, but I can be happy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge now firmly in focusAttention now turns to Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>, where Pidcock will line up with a very different level of confidence compared to just a few days ago. \u201cYeah, a lot more confidence,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very different. It\u2019ll be a lot harder than this, I think. But we\u2019ll see. Let\u2019s go and have a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the level he has reached across the week, and the speed of his progression, that confidence is not without foundation.<\/p>\n

What began as a cautious return has quickly turned into a statement of intent, and with Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge looming, Pidcock now looks far more competitive than many would have expected just days earlier.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pidcock\u2019s trajectory across the five stages told the story. After easing his way back into the peloton,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,16149,216237,79,16153,253055,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-915889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-liege-bastogne-liege","10":"tag-pinarello-q36-5-pro-cycling-team","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tom-pidcock","13":"tag-tour-of-the-alps","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116461012770537461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915889","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=915889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}