Pidcock back on the bike at Tour of the Alps as Liège looms large

The Briton hasn't raced since hitting the deck on stage 5 of Catalunya on March 27, but his team confirmed on Friday that he will line up at the five-day Alpine race, which begins on April 20.

The timing of the crash was particularly cruel. Pidcock had been flying this spring, a win at Milano–Torino, second at Milan–San Remo, third overall at the Ruta del Sol with a stage win, and two top-three stage finishes at Catalunya before the crash derailed things on the road to La Molina. He abandoned the following morning. 

Pidcock isn't going to the Alps to win it. The real target is Liège–Bastogne–Liège the following Sunday, a race he has unfinished business with after finishing second in 2023 and hovering just inside the top ten the past two years with ninth and tenth. On the form he showed before the injury, he'd be right in the mix again.

The Catalunya crash came just as Pidcock looked to be settling in at his new team after a split with Ineos Grenadiers last autumn. The hilly terrain in the Alps should give him a proper hit-out before tackling the Ardennes. Whether the knee holds up over five days of racing is the question that matters most right now.