Tom Pidcock won for the fourth time in 2025 on Thursday, winning stage two of the Vuelta a Andalucía Ruta Ciclista Del Sol.
The Q36.5 rider was part of a five-man group which formed with around 40km to go on the punchy stage. After biding his time on the slopes of Torredelcampo, the 25-year-old out-sprinted his breakaway companions to take the ninth win of his career. It looked briefly like he was boxed in, but he took to the front with 150m to go and was not caught.
Notably, it was the second race day that Pidcock had spent battling against his former Ineos Grenadiers team; his former teammate Brandon Rivera was second behind the Yorkshireman.
Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates XRG) took control of the general classification as a result of being in the break - he was also third on the day. Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) slipped to fourth overall as a result of being in the group of favourites, over a minute down on the lead riders. Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) finished fourth on Thursday, and is now second overall, while Enric Mas (Movistar) finished fifth.
Van Gils won stage one, his first victory for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, while Pidcock shipped 39 seconds after an attacking display which came to little. However, he made up for it on day two.
"It was good," Pidcock said of his day to the host broadcaster post-race. "Today I stayed calm, I rode smart, and now I've won. I think yesterday I was not disappointed, but I rode stupid. I wasted a lot of energy in the race. I was riding too enthusiastically. It was a mistake on my part. Perhaps I was being a little bit too confident. It was a nice reality check.
"Today I raced really smart, I didn't have a big panic, I let the race play out, and in the end it was perfect. I know I'm in great shape and yesterday was just not a good day. So, it's really nice to get my hands in the air and be up there on GC. The week is long, and yesterday, you learn more from winning than you do from winning. It's better to happen yesterday than in a Monument."
"I didn't look so much at the other three stages because I knew the first two were the most important for GC," he said of the rest of the five-stage event. "The race is so hard. We had five guys in the front with a two minute gap at one point today. It's crazy how easily the race can explode. Anything can happen."
The Ruta del Sol is Pidcock's first race in Europe this year, after he won two stages and the overall at his first race for Q36.5, the AlUla Tour. He joined the ProTeam from Ineos Grenadiers over the winter.
