'The frustration was coming out a bit' - Pidcock relieved to pick up first win of 2026

The Briton’s late attack carried him to a solo victory ahead of Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and it also lifted him to third on the final GC behind overall winner Iván Romeo (Movistar).

“It’s great to get the pressure off and get the hands in the air early in the season in the first block of races, so that’s what we were working towards,” Pidcock said afterwards. “The shape was great in Murcia and Jaén but the weather and also UAE got the better of us in those races.” 

Pidcock lined up as the favourite for the Ruta del Sol, but he confessed that his Pinarello-Q36.5 squad had perhaps misjudged the difficulty of this year’s route. After Romeo moved into the lead with victory in Otura on stage 2, there were few clear opportunities to divest the Spaniard of the yellow jersey.

“The frustration was coming out a little bit in this race after we basically lost the GC basically on stage 2,” Pidcock said. “Even though the legs were so good, it’s not always easy to show it and I think also the parcours was not actually as hard as we thought. We didn’t look into it well enough, which was an oversight on our part.”

Pidcock and his Pinarello-Q36.5 team held a training camp in Chile before the season began, and he believes the work at altitude had shown its value in his opening slate of racing in Spain. His season continues with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad next weekend before he takes aim at Strade Bianche and contest with Tadej Pogacar on March 7.

“I’ve trained super hard this winter,” Pidcock said. “We made a big commitment as a team both financially and also by trying something new and going to Chile to train there. It’s always difficult to get into the racing and put it all on the line when you come from training so hard, but it’s great for us and the team that we could get a victory under our belt already.”