Tom Pidcock ready to take over vacant INEOS leader position? "Want to see where I am in high mountains"

It won't be a crisis yet at INEOS Grenadiers, but anyone who has been watching the Dauphiné closely over the past few days can still see that things are a bit sparse on the British side. Egan Bernal, Daniel Felipe Martinez and Carlos Rodríguez don't yet seem to be on point to carry the Tour leaderboard, which could possibly open up opportunities for someone like Pidcock?

Anyone who saw Pidcock training on his time trial bike around the start town of Einsiedeln on Saturday could not escape the Brit's ambitions for the opening chrono of the Tour of Switzerland. While his INEOS mates - no joke - crossed the finish line with a new coffee machine, Pidcock was busy discussing things with two INEOS cars and team managers before the 12.7-kilometre ordeal on day one.

The moment Pidcock was confronted with his time trial ambitions in the mixed zone, he couldn't suppress his smile at IDLProCycling.com, among others. "Huh, time trial? How do you guys know?" the Yorkshire man grinned, only to respond seriously. "I did indeed work on that, my position on the time trial bike."

We should not forget that Pidcock was once world champion against the clock in the juniors, but after that the time trial - partly due to the combination with mountain biking and cyclocross - took a bit of a hit. "I certainly feel better at it now than I did at the beginning of the season, for example, in the time trial in the Algarve. So I'm looking forward to it, I'm curious to see exactly where I stand." He doesn't dare put a number on that yet, though. "I don't think I can win, but I hope for myself that I can just finish a good time trial."

When the captain of INEOS, which also starts with Ben Tulett, is asked about his ambitions, we get a somewhat pre-cooked answer. "I'm here to see exactly where I stand. I had a good training camp, where I was able to do everything I needed to do. There's still some room for improvement towards the Tour, so that's something I want to discover in Switzerland."

Then the winner of last year's Alpe d'Huez let something slip: he wants to test himself in the high mountains. "I think it's a nice course to discover where I stand, and I'm talking mainly about the mountains. Last season in the Tour of Switzerland I got COVID before we went into the mountains, so also in that area I want to see where I stand," said Pidcock, who has already had an excellent opportunity to prepare for the high peaks in Tenerife. "There I also rode a lot of uphill."

Tom van der Salm (Twitter: @TomvanderSalm) | email: [email protected])