Tom Pidcock brings Zoe Bäckstedt to tears with a gift, and reason for removed KOM seems to be known...

The Coll de Rates is known as the ultimate training climb in the Spanish regions of Alicante and Valencia, where a large portion of cycling teams set up their camps throughout the year. Pidcock, who will compete in a mountain bike race in La Nucia this weekend, set a time of 12 minutes and 31 seconds on the 6.5-kilometer climb with an average gradient of just over five percent. This was a whopping eighteen (!) seconds faster than Juan Ayuso of UAE-Team Emirates, who, however, quickly regained the Strava KOM (King of the Mountains) title. Pidcock either promptly deleted his effort or set it to private, but by then, a fair number of cycling enthusiasts had already noticed the impressive time of the British rider from INEOS Grenadiers. Consequently, it quickly circulated on social media.

The day after the controversy surrounding Pidcock's record time, cycling journalist Ronan McLaughlin wrote a blog on his popular website Escape Collective. He had obtained a photo that could potentially capture Pidcock on the Coll de Rates, seemingly being assisted uphill by a scooter, apparently on the day of the Strava KOM. The reason he quickly removed the record? "Pidcock is not like countless others; he seems to be one of the good ones. He accidentally set a record on a day when he was training behind the scooter and did the right thing. When he realized he had the KOM, he returned it to its rightful owner," McLaughlin stated.

That Pidcock is a good guy is evident from a video shared by GoZwift, featuring Zoe Bäckstedt. The British world champion in under-23 cyclocross was recently surprised by her compatriot Pidcock, who entered a dining hall and handed Bäckstedt a helmet. The super talent recently joined the Red Bull family and therefore received a personalized Red Bull helmet from Pidcock, who has been a familiar face of Red Bull for years. This brought tears to Bäckstedt's eyes, resulting in beautiful footage.

Pidcock starts his road season on February 14th in the Tour of the Algarve, before the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad awaits. That is also the only cobblestone classic for the leader of INEOS, who has set his sights on the Tour de France and the Olympic Games. However, he will compete in Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of the Basque Country, Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege: still a packed spring schedule.