Pidcock cautious on Liège prospects despite comeback Alps win: 'It will be difficult'

Pidcock suffered knee ligament damage and a hairline fracture of the tibia when he crashed heavily at the Volta a Catalunya a month ago, and it wasn’t immediately clear how much of his season had been compromised.

His presence at the Tour of the Alps this week came as something of a surprise, and his return to action is as much about getting some race days before his pre-Tour de France training block as it is about trying to build for Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Although Pidcock placed second on the opening day in Innsbruck, he confessed to Domestique afterwards that it had been his “worst day ever on the bike.” It didn’t get much better on Tuesday, when he conceded seven minutes on the summit finish at Val Martello, and he was braced for more of the same when he was distanced on the Passo Castrin early on stage 3.

But Pidcock, as if we didn’t know it already, is wired a little differently to most riders in the peloton. After he latched back on, his Pinarello-Q36.5 squad would take a controlling interest at the head of a reduced bunch, and Pidcock himself was to the fore in the finale on the fast descent into Arco.

In the sprint that ensued, Pidcock proved stronger than his own mistakes. By his own admission, he started his effort too soon, but he maintained enough speed to hold off Tommaso Dati (Ukyo) and Egan Bernal (Ineos) to take the spoils.

“The arrows for the last corner started quite far before we got there,” Pidcock explained when he took a seat in the press room. “I didn’t want to get boxed in because I knew that my best chance was to be in first on this corner. I went too early, but it was okay.

“I saw Egan was the first guy in my wheel, and I thought, ‘Egan is not slow, but I think I can beat Egan in the sprint,’ so I just went full to the line.”

Pidcock doubled down on his insistence that the opening day here had been an ordeal. “It was really the worst day I had on the bike for as long as I could remember,” he said. “Ok, I was second, but that didn’t reflect what happened through the day. But every day, I’m getting a little better and getting a little more confidence.”

It certainly took a considerable dose of assurance to put his team riding on the front here after struggling as he did on the Passo Castrin, but that only added to the sense of accomplishment at day’s end.

“The guys committed 100% which is super nice because it wasn’t evident I could finish it off,” said Pidcock. “It feels even nicer than normal to win.

Even so, Pidcock must feel a nagging sense of frustration at what that Catalunya crash cost him. He had made an effervescent start to 2026, impressing at the Ruta del Sol, winning Milano-Torino and then pushing Tadej Pogačar all the way to the Via Roma in a tumultuous edition of Milan-Sanremo. Although the lay-off after his Catalunya crash proved to be a short one, it changed the tenor of his Spring.

“Mentally it’s super challenging, I think. You know, the last time I was racing, I was one of the strongest guys in every race I was doing,” Pidcock said.

“Ten days might not seem like a lot to a normal person, but yeah, I’m pretty shit now, so it’s long enough. But you know, when I’m like this, all the pressure is off, so I just try to enjoy this and whatever comes.”

When Pidcock stood on the podium on the Via Roma in March, he looked set to be among Pogačar’s chief rivals at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. While Pidcock will line out at La Doyenne on Sunday, he downplayed his prospects of going contesting victory given all that has happened since Sanremo. 

“I think it will be difficult, of course,” he said. “I never thought I would now be able to properly challenge in Liège [after the crash], but I hope that I can be good enough that I can score some points for the team. That’s an important thing for us. It’s become a new thing for me, keeping that in mind. But if I’m half decent, it can still be enjoyable, I think…”

Don’t we know it.