Tom Pidcock explains quick return from horror crash: 'I'm really lucky'

A delayed flight meant that Tom Pidcock only just about made it in time for the Tour of the Alps team presentation in Innsbruck on Sunday, but then again, the Briton was never supposed to be here in the first place.

His original schedule had him lining out at Amstel Gold Race this weekend, but the knee injury sustained in his horrific crash at the Volta a Catalunya last month forced a rethink of his schedule. 

Pidcock sustained anterolateral ligament damage as well as bone bruising and a hairline fracture of the tibia, and Pinarello-Q36.5 manager Doug Ryder was cautious about his return to racing, telling Domestique that the team was prepared for the possibility that he would miss the Ardennes Classics altogether.

But once Pidcock got back on the bike, the swelling on his knee began to come down, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège suddenly became a real possibility. The team’s initial suggestion was for Pidcock to return at Flèche Wallonne, but he felt five days in the Alps would be a better reintroduction to racing than a high-octane effort on the Mur de Huy.

“I think I’m really lucky because riding my bike actually helped the knee get better,” Pidcock told media including Domestique in Innsbruck on Sunday. 

“It took inflammation out of the knee and so actually it was pretty good. I think if I wasn’t a cyclist and not trying to ride, then it would have taken longer. I don’t have any pain. 

“My shape when I first got back riding was actually pretty good. We were quite happy, so that’s why we decided to race. The team actually wanted me to race Flèche, but I was like, ‘Yeah, but there you need to be really, really 100%, you can’t hide.’ So I thought, you know, it’s good to come here, to race some longer climbs. That’s what I really need to improve at, I think, and then I’ll see where I am Liège.”

But while building towards La Doyenne is the overriding objective of the week, the Tour of the Alps would ordinarily suit Pidcock’s gifts as a climber and puncheur. He was coy, however, when asked about his prospects of picking up a result over the five days.

“I don’t know yet, we’ll see,” Pidcock said. “I mean, tomorrow is the easiest stage, but it could still be quite aggressive, so I think we’ll see quickly.”

Pidcock spent more than a week off the bike after abandoning the Volta a Catalunya and he had to wait longer again to resume full training, but he will be hopeful that his sparkling early-season form hasn’t dissipated in the meantime. He delivered one of the outstanding displays of his career last month to place a narrow second to Tadej Pogacar at Milan-Sanremo, days after he had danced up Superga to win Milano-Torino.

“Nine days I was off the bike, and then I don’t know how long it was until I did more than two hours,” Pidcock said. “That’s quite a long time, but then once I got back training, we immediately knew it was okay to push, because when I rode, the swelling went down. So after that, I started training hard quite quickly.”

Pidcock’s crash at the Volta a Catalunya also brought the proposed introduction of GPS safety trackers sharply into focus. After riding off the road and into a ravine when he crashed on the descent of Collada Sobirana, Pidcock was fortunate that he was able to radio his Pinarello-36.5 management to flag his crash and alert them to his whereabouts.

The incident took place shortly after Domestique reported that the UCI had launched a consultation period with teams, riders and organisers regarding the introduction of mandatory safety trackers. Pidcock confirmed on Sunday that he has not spoken with the governing body since his Catalunya crash.

“No, I haven’t, and they haven’t spoken to me,” Pidcock said. “Obviously it’s a very difficult subject at the moment, safety, because on the one hand, there are changes being made that don’t affect safety at all, but that you know we’re just doing things for the sake of it. And then there’s other things, like improvements in technology, where actually you could improve people’s safety without impacting the sport, so it’s a difficult subject.”