'It's going to be a lot harder than this' - Pidcock heads for Liège after another Alps cameo

In Innsbruck on Monday, Pidcock told Domestique that he had just endured one of his “worst ever” days on the bike despite placing second in the sprint on stage 1, but he was more upbeat about his condition by the time he streaked to victory in Arco two days later.

Even so, the Pinarello-Q36.5 man insisted that he was still well short of his best after sustaining knee ligament damage and a hairline fracture of the tibia in his heavy crash at the Volta a Catalunya last month.

Pidcock was again prominent on the tough final stage to Bolzano, entering the day’s early break and later attacking on the penultimate climb of Montoppio. 

He would later attempt to hang tough after the GC contenders had caught him on Cologna di Sopra before relenting in the finale, rolling home almost eight minutes down on the day’s winner, Giulio Pellizzari.

“I felt pretty good, every day I was getting better,” Pidcock told reporters beyond the finish line, joking that it hadn’t cost him too much energy to make the early escape. “The break was not too hard to get into. I think Red Bull must sponsor the Austrian team, or something…”

Pidcock’s aggression throughout the stage was followed by a series of efforts to stay in touch with the GC men over the final climb before he finally knocked off the pace.

“It was good. Obviously, I didn’t have the legs to stay at the front in the final, but I can be happy,” said Pidcock, who smiled when asked to put a percentage on how much he had improved over the course of his five days in Austria and Italy.

“Haha, more than 50[%]. I wasn’t even dropped on the first climb today,” he said.

Pidcock will now travel onward to Belgium for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he placed second behind Evenepoel three years ago. 

He looked a serious contender for this year’s race after pushing Pogacar all the way at Milan-Sanremo in March, but he confessed this week that his Catalunya crash had forced a reassessment of his prospects. That sentiment hasn’t changed despite another promising cameo on the road to Bolzano on Friday.

“It’s very different, and it’s going to be a lot harder than this, I think,” Pidcock said. “But we’ll see. It’s good to have a race, it’ll be alright.”

On Saturday, after the team presentation, the Brit was even more clear about what to (not) expect from him: “I wouldn’t bet on myself. Don’t put me in your fantasy team tomorrow,” he joked.