'Ruthless' Pidcock wins right away at AlUla Tour: "What taste does this one have? At the moment blood"

Tom Pidcock won the second stage of the AlUla Tour. The stage finished on the steep flanks of Mountain Wirkah. The British rider proved to be the strongest puncher and gave his new team, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, his first victory. Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain-Victorious) and Alan Hatherly (Jayco-AlUla) finished well behind in second and third.

By the way, it was anything but a normal stage. After a normal opening stage, the race was neutralized and shortened to about forty kilometers before the finish. In the end, only the last five kilometers were returned to normal.

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No more question marks for Pidcock

Nevertheless, that did little to detract from Pidcock's victory. The Brit was particularly pleased with his first win for his new employer. "How does this one taste? At the moment, blood," laughed the 25-year-old rider in the flash interview. "Today was super important for me. A new team, all these great people, and I wanted to do them proud today. The team rode briliantly, they had full commitment to me. I was highly motivated today."

It's always nice as a rider to be victorious immediately in your first race. After the winter, it is always a question of where you stand compared to the competition. "I knew I was in good shape but this year, I'm on SRAM, the power meter is different. Objectively, I'm in a good place. But after a winter where you haven't competed against anyone, you've done a lot of efforts on your own, you actually don't know. It's nice to get a bit of assurance."

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Pidcock has good shot at GC

And so the way he won must also do Pidcock good. A powerful attack to which no one had an answer. Ultimately, he picked up four seconds on Kepplinger and seven seconds on Hatherley. Number four Eddie Dunbar already lost eighteen seconds. And that was within five hundred meters of the finish.

"We had agreed beforehand: we will try to win the stage, and it is not about the GC," Pidcock began his analysis of the final. "The first time I thought I'd test the waters a little bit. I felt the wind a bit and thought I'd wait a bit longer. We got to 500m [to go] and the road was going down to the left, the right was a bit higher, so I went right and used that section to attack. It was a little bit fast, the last 200m. I'm just super happy."

Regardless, that was more than enough for the stage win. Now, the eyes of Pidcock and the team turn to the GC. Bonus seconds will allow him to defend an eight-second lead over the next few days. "Before coming here we said today was the day to win the race, it's easier to defend than take time later in the race. Now, hopefully, there's a bit of a buffer. It's still all to play for, but we're in a strong position," de Pidcock concluded.

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