Tom Pidcock has no intention of taking his eye off the ball after winning Amstel Gold Race and is ready to do battle with both Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, says his Ineos Grenadiers coach.
Now the first-ever British rider to triumph in the men’s Amstel Gold Race, Pidcock has already taken second in Liège-Bastogne-Liege last year – also his country’s best-ever finish in cycling’s oldest Classic – and will be back in the fray both tomorrow at La Flèche Wallonne and again next Sunday.
Pidcock’s best placing in La Flèche Wallonne dates from 2021, when he took sixth after finishing second in Amstel Gold Race and winning Brabantse Pijl. He also tackled the Mur de Huy in 2023, but was only able to finish 18th.
However as coach Kurt Bogaerts told Het Laatste Nieuws after Pidcock won Amstel, in the first part of the 2023 Ardennes Classics, following a fall and concussion in Tirreno-Adriatico, the Briton was still playing catch-up. That said, those setbacks didn’t stop Pidcock from finishing third in Amstel Gold last year, as well as subsequently taking second in Liège.
“Now he has a big win under his belt. That does make it easier,” Bogaerts argued. “Over the past four years [each season] he has always won a major race, he has shown that he can compete with the greats.”
Bogaerts is convinced, in any case, that Pidcock will have the chance to battle for victory, regardless of Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar’s presence on Sunday.
“If you had believed everything that was written about Mathieu, he would have won the Amstel even before he had raced it,” Bogaerts pointed out. “That didn't happen.”
“ They're just people too. On Wednesday on the Mur de Huy, it will be a question of good positioning. In Liège Tom will try to beat Pogačar and Van der Poel, as he has done in the past.”
Taking Amstel Gold was a nice victory, Bogaerts told Het Laatste Nieuws, “But it doesn’t end here. We keep calm and carry on.”
