"We don’t know if it’s possible": Pidcock hopes to be successful in the Ardennes, but knows Pogacar won’t be easy to beat

His trainer, Kurt Bogaerts, joined Pidcock on the Swiss team. He also notices that his protégé is a new version of himself. "It's mainly Tom's overall development," he tells Velo. " think more like a general improvement of Tom, and I think he's just a better rider at the moment compared with last year. He's performing consistently on a higher level. I think Tom is a versatile rider. Tom is not a rider who particularly goes for one type of racing. He really loves the general racing. When we go to a race, we try to perform, and if there's a stage race or a one-day race, we try to make a plan to be in the game for the podium or to win."

The departure from INEOS Grenadiers was quite tricky. It may not have been a happy ending, but Pidcock is looking ahead. "I'm really looking forward to the new season. I'm looking forward to working with Kurt and the team. I'm looking forward to the new challenge." The decision to take on a new challenge has paid off. Pidcock has already won four times this year. "I think changing environment is definitely giving him new energy. I think, yeah, he’s also a year older, a lot more experienced in the racing, and I think he had a good winter. I think that’s a boring point, but that’s most of the time the most important point—how you do your winter."

In the Strade Bianche, the British rider dared to attack Tadej Pogacar on the Sante Marie, the longest gravel section of the day. Despite a crash by the world champion, he ultimately had to admit defeat, but the warning shot had been fired: Pidcock is here, and he's ready to win. "I think he made a massive step forward, and he showed courage, the courage that you want to see from a good rider. That will bring him success sooner or later. But I think there you also see his progress as a rider. If you can ride with the best rider in the world for a long time, and you’re not afraid to cooperate, and then the best guy wins, that just shows where we are at the moment."

The two-time Olympic mountain biking champion's performance in Italy was impressive but also a reality check. Because Pogacar beat him by a minute and a half, even after his crash, so Pidcock will have to work much harder to beat the Slovenian. "He’s with the better riders at the moment, but he’s not the best. There’s work to do to still try to close the gap. You don’t know if that’s possible or not, but we have the ambition and belief that it’s possible," said Bogaerts.

The Belgian trainer also saw his pupil compete in Milan-Sanremo, but he was less successful there. Just before the Cipressa, he was stuck behind a crash. He was not in position when Pogacar attacked there. "When you work towards a goal, and it was his last race from a big block, and then you hit the deck at a crucial point, well … we analyzed a lot of what happened. I think he was not in the best position, but he was not in a bad place. He was like 25th position. We got all the pictures from when he hit the ground. In the end, if you see the race circumstance, there would have been a really good scenario for Tom to be in the mix. So it’s unfortunate."

Q36.5 hopes that things will go better during the Ardennes classics. And Pidcock will be riding them all: on Friday, he will start in the Brabantse Pijl, followed by the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. That full program works in his favor, says Bogaerts. "I think it’s good that you work towards a period where you have not one chance but potentially four chances to try to do a big performance. So that it’s not everything on one race. I think there are four races with characteristics that suit him. He likes these races."

After Liège, the focus will be on the Giro d'Italia. The Swiss team received a wild card, and their British leader will definitely be at the start. But whether he will go for the GC or aim for stage wins will only be decided during the race. "We’ll see. I think we are free. We have no pressure. We have ambition — high ambitions — and we’ve said there is no limitation factor. Let’s go step by step, and see how he gets through the first week or so, how the mental and physical freshness is. Then we make a plan. But when you have a racing block with goals already in the first part of the season, like the classics and Milan-San Remo, then it’s not set in stone to go with ambition for GC."

Whatever happens, Pidcock will eventually want to fulfill his ambitions in the GC. In his previous Grand Tours, he never made any secret that he only wants to fight for the top spots. "It’s definitely a goal to develop him as a GC rider. A grand tour again would be really important to continue the growth. For him, a grand tour for the first time after a big block of racing could make him a lot stronger for the future."