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Cycling
12 ways off-road riding gave Tom Pidcock the edge at the Tour
Tom Pidcock took this year's Tour by storm, winning a stage at Alpe d'Huez. Here's how cross-country MTB and cyclo-cross have shaped him and given him the skills to make it a debut to remember.
Most professional cyclists see competing at the Tour de France as a career-defining moment. Tom Pidcock isn't like most professional cyclists.
The 22-year-old rider from Great Britain was making his debut at the 2022 edition of the iconic three-week Grand Tour as part of the INEOS Grenadiers team. But he wasn't simply going along for the ride and to get some experience. Pidcock was a key support rider (domestique) for the team's three-pronged assault of 2018-winner Geraint Thomas, 2016's young classification winner, Adam Yates, and Colombian climber Dani Daniel Martínez. No pressure there then.
Tom Pidcock racing at the XC MTB World Cup earlier in 2022
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Pidcock is no shy and retiring pro cyclist. He left his mark on the Tour, proved himself on road cycling's biggest stage – stealing the headlines with an audacious stage 12 win where he left everyone in his dust (including four-time Tour winner Chris Froome) as he flew down mountains and raced his way to the top of Alpe d'Huez and its 21 hairpins.
Although a relatively new name in the professional peloton, his performances won't have come as a big surprise to those who've followed his career in cross-country mountain biking (XC) and cyclo-cross (CX).
Here are just some of the ways that the off-road-leaning disciplines helped prepare Pidcock for his biggest road cycling race to date...
01
Mountain biking has made him fearless at descending
Tom Pidcock's incredible descending on Stage 12 grabbed pundits' attention
© Matt Ford/Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Pidcock won Stage 12 (Briançon – L'Alpe d'Huez) of the 2022 Tour de France
© Matt Ford
While it's no mean feat to whizz up iconic haute categorie climbs, Pidcock's win on stage 12 (Briançon to L'Alpe d'Huez) was as much built on his descending ability as his outright power going uphill. Bike handling skills learned on the cross-country Olympic courses of the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup gave him the confidence to stay off the brakes and flow around apexes, retaining speed while saving energy in the process.
His time off-road has also given him an almost sixth sense when it comes to reading corners, enabling him to perfectly position himself on the road to over or undertake slower competitors while hitting speeds in excess of 100kph [62mph].
Top speed
02
XC has taught him climbing skills
Tom also showed his power in the Stage 12 ascents
© Matt Ford/Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
What goes up must come down: Tom dug deep on the road to Alpe D'Huez
© Matt Ford
If his descending got him into the breakaway, it was pure climbing power that helped him get the jump on the other four riders in the group when ascending Alpe d'Huez on stage 12. This ability to go deep into his reserves to create a gap between him and other riders before falling into a consistent and fast rhythm to hold them at bay is typical of XC and cyclo-cross racing, where recovering while still churning out high-intensity efforts is often rewarded with a win.
Also, while the gradient on the hors categorie climb averaged eight percent for 13km (with punchy sections of 13 percent), the hills of an XC course can often creep into in excess of 20 percent, and have to be ridden multiple times throughout a race.
03
CX has given him mental strength
Tom performed strongly in the opening stage's individual time trial
© Matt Ford/Twila Federica Muzzi/Red Bull Content Pool
Tom has years of experience of high intensity efforts in cyclo-cross and XC
© Matt Ford
In this year's opening stage, Pidcock put in an impressive performance to finish 15th in the individual time trial. As the 2017 time trial junior world champion, his result shouldn't come as a real surprise, but the lumps and bumps of off-road riding also help him in a discipline focused on aerodynamics and being smooth at all costs.
That's all thanks to one thing: mentality. Time trialling requires you to ride on your limit (and even beyond). Pidcock's mental strength has been honed from years of high-intensity efforts in cyclo-cross and XC, meaning that when he needs to drop the hammer, he isn't held back by his brain.
Time trialling
04
Mountain biking means he can handle riding on the cobbles
Pidcock came through one of the race's most technical terrains unscathed
© Matt Ford/Twila Federica Muzzi/Red Bull Content Pool
The roots and ruts of XC MTB courses have been good preparation for cobbles
© Matt Ford
The pavé of northern France and Belgium is a notorious feature of the Spring Classics. The 11 sectors included on stage five of the 2022 Tour de France proved no problem for Pidcock though, who's at home on the roots and ruts of any Mercedes-Benz UCI Cross-country Mountain Bike World Cup course. Finishing among the main peloton in 36th, he'd used his bike handling skills to avoid any falls and get through one of the race's most technical terrains unscathed.
05
CX has honed his sprint finish
Cyclo-cross has helped develop Tom's sprint finish skills
© Matt Ford/Twila Federica Muzzi/Red Bull Content Pool
Tom went toe-to-toe with yellow jersey contenders on stage 6
© Matt Ford
Staying with and finishing in the lead group is an impressive feat in itself, but summoning the strength to sprint for the finish line after more than four-and-a-half hours of racing takes almost supernatural physiological strength.
Like green jersey winner Wout van Aert (himself a former cyclo-cross world champion), Pidcock showed on stage 6 how the drop-bar off-road discipline has helped ingrain incredible reserves of strength. Going toe-to-toe with yellow jersey contenders Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, he snatched a fourth-place finish.
06
XC has made him a cadence beast
Road cycling isn't the only discipline where pedal speed is vital
© Matt Ford/Twila Federica Muzzi/Red Bull Content Pool
Pidcock is used to doing battle in a low gear
© Matt Ford
Being able to spin the pedals at a high cadence can be the difference between sticking with a break or getting dropped in the Tour de France. Fortunately, Pidcock learned his trade in XC mountain biking, where the low gearing often means riders have to get on top of their highest available gear and lay down some serious RPM to achieve high speeds on the flat.
Cadence
07
He can adapt to all conditions
Temperatures broke the 40°C barrier at the 2022 Tour de France, with the tarmac exceeding 60°C. Having competed and won in everything from snow (as seen at some of his winter cyclo-cross races) through to humid and hot conditions (the XC MTB race at the Tokyo Olympics), he's adept at staying competitive, whatever the weather.
08
Experience means more than age
Pidcock was the third-youngest rider at the 2022 Tour de France, but it's a position he's become accustomed to finding himself in during his rise in cyclo-cross and XC. When he lined up at the 2022 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championship (a race he went on to win by 30 seconds), he was the youngest rider in the field, while he continues to prove that his age (and relative lack of experience) is just a number – as proven when he won back-to-back Mercedes-Benz UCI Cross-country Mountain Bike World Cups at the start of the 2022 season.
09
CX has honed his bike handling skills
Crashes are unfortunately a common occurrence when a group of more than 100 riders are attempting to navigate a stretch of road at speeds in excess of 48kph [30mph]. Pidcock used his bike handling skills and awareness learned in cyclo-cross to dodge any falls, minimising his risk of injury in the process.
10
CX has taught him how to handle crowds
The scenes on Alpe d'Huez and the other high mountain finishes in the Tour can seem quite intimidating for those pros experiencing it for the first time, but not Pidcock. Navigating (well-oiled) fans is nothing new for the Brit. Cyclo-cross racing is renowned for its over-enthusiastic spectators; in Pidcock's case, someone screaming support in his face as he makes his way around a course is nothing new for him to deal with.
11
CX has built his base endurance
While little comes close to the intensity of racing 21 stages of a Grand Tour in 24 days, Pidcock isn't completely new to the concept of back-to-back days at the sharp end of a race. His cyclo-cross seasons will often see him racing twice over the course of a weekend, while his debut Mercedes-Benz UCI MTB World Cup season in 2020 saw him race and win three U23 races and the eMTB world champs in just eight days.
12
Success hasn't gone to his head
Tom hasn't got carried away with his successes to date
© Matt Ford / Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool
Victory on Stage 12 was Tom's first taste of Tour success
© Matt Ford
Even after winning his first-ever Tour de France stage, Pidcock said to reporters that he had "bigger ambitions" at the race. This aspiration to always look ahead is something he's learned during his time in cyclo-cross and XC, where victories and impressive performances have all been stepping stones of a long-term vision to collect rainbow jerseys, medals and world titles in a variety of disciplines.
