‘I don’t really enjoy Grand Tours’: Tom Pidcock opens up on Tour struggle and reveals unusual bucket list

The Pinarello-Q36.5 rider finished third at the 2025 Vuelta a España, one of the biggest road results of his career, but told Sporza during the Tour de France that the format remains mentally difficult.

“I don’t really enjoy Grand Tours,” Pidcock said.

For Pidcock, the hardest part is not simply the physical strain. It is the fact that many stages are about surviving, defending a position or limiting losses rather than racing for victory.

“Every day you are fighting and suffering, but you cannot fight for the win every day,” he said. “Sometimes you are just suffering to limit your losses. Mentally, that is quite hard for me.”

His third place at the Vuelta changed the way others viewed him as a Grand Tour rider, but it also changed his own understanding of what he could achieve. Pidcock said he began to enjoy that race more as it went on, particularly once a podium finish became realistic.

He still prefers the kind of racing that has defined much of his career: shorter climbs, constant changes in rhythm and opportunities to attack.

“I like variety and races with short climbs,” he said. “A long climb gives me too much time to think.”

That preference was clear again during Sunday’s Tour stage to Ussel. Pidcock spent the day in the breakaway and came close to victory, eventually finishing third behind Mathieu van der Poel and Tobias Halland Johannessen.

His chances were affected by an unusual mechanical problem in the finale. A small stone became trapped near the button of his shifter, leaving him unable to change gear properly at a crucial moment.

The ride still offered a glimpse of the version of Pidcock that thrives most. He was able to race aggressively, respond to attacks and stay involved in the fight for the stage.

Before the Tour, Pidcock had already explained that he wanted to remove as much pressure as possible from the race. Speaking on Frodeno’s Going Mental podcast, he said he would arrive without fixed targets and focus instead on racing freely.

“This year I’m not going with any expectations,” he said. “I want to race, and I want to have fun, and the rest will come.”

Pidcock has often spoken openly about the Tour’s intensity. He described it as the biggest race in cycling, but also one of the hardest places to be when form or results are not going his way.

“When it goes well, there is no better place to perform,” he said on the podcast. “But when it is not going well, it can be miserable.”

Away from racing, Pidcock also revealed to Sporza that his ambitions extend far beyond cycling.

Climbing Mount Everest is on his bucket list, along with racing cars and taking part in the Rallye Monte Carlo. He would also like to compete at Red Bull Rampage, the extreme freeride mountain bike event in Utah.

A downhill World Cup appearance was once another goal, although Pidcock admitted he is now less certain about that idea.

His list also includes setting a Guinness World Record and jumping from a railway bridge at Whistler Mountain Bike Park.

The most unexpected item was joining the Mile High Club, although Pidcock quickly added that it would have to wait until after his professional cycling career.

His ambitions on the road are more straightforward. After winning two Olympic mountain bike titles, Pidcock is now chasing the biggest prizes in road cycling. A first Monument victory is high on his list, but the rainbow jersey remains the most coveted title missing from his palmarès.

For now, though, his focus is on the Tour. Sunday’s third place in Ussel showed that the opportunities are there, even if the result slipped away. For a rider who thrives on instinct and variety, the best chance of success may come on the days when the race is hardest to control, and several of those are still to come.