'It's healthy to try to find your limits' – Why GC remains Grand Tour goal for Tom Pidcock ahead of top 10 bid at Vuelta a España

Great Britain's Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) has won world titles, Olympic Gold Medals, and a stage of the Tour de France up the iconic Alpe d'Huez, but he's never finished higher than 13th overall in a Grand Tour. So why does a top 10 in one of cycling's prestigious three-week tests, on this occasion the Vuelta a España, continue to be a goal?

According to his coach, Kurt Bogaerts, it's partly down to maintaining maximum motivation – both for the rider and those around him at Q36.5 – but also because of his previous successes, the need to challenge himself and become one of the top road riders in the world is something Pidcock desires.

For the upcoming 21 stages heading from Turin to Madrid, Pidcock's number one goal will be to take his first Grand Tour stage win since his maiden triumph at the Tour in 2022, but the top 10 overall is second only to that.

Having led into the Giro d'Italia without the ideal preparation, after a tough Ardennes Classics block, Pidcock arrives at this year's Vuelta refreshed and ready to challenge for that goal, which Bogaerts simply puts down to: "if it motivates him, and he likes to go for it, I think, why not?"

I think the outside world makes out that we have been chasing it, but we never really chased it with preparation. And it's a healthy thing to try to find your limits," Bogaerts told Cyclingnews five days before the Vuelta's start.

"It's something that Tom didn't accelerate in, and he likes to challenge himself – he's won one-day races, he's won a stage in a grand tour, and what's more than this is trying to perform in the GC.

"It's also something to get you out of bed every day for three weeks, and try to concentrate on the details. It's the full picture with the team. To try to motivate your teammates, the performance staff, to look at all the details. I think it's just where everything comes together."

Given his status as a top puncheur and potential GC threat, Bogaerts also reasons that Pidcock is a rider who won't be given much licence, due to his status as a multi-discipline star, so winning from the GC group becomes his best option anyway.

"He knows it is not easy. But one thing doesn't really stop the other. Tom is a well-marked rider, and he doesn't always get the freedom, so he kind of needs to try to win a stage from the better riders.

"He just says that he still has ambition for GC. Maybe some other riders dream of it, but don't speak about it.

"If you don't target GC, then basically you let it go the first day and take 10, 20 minutes and create freedom in the classification. That's not really what we want to do in this phase – he's still young, he's targeted a lot of races on the off-road, and now, he's really into the road cycling more and more."

Bogaerts, too, isn't overly optimistic, knowing that Pidcock's 16th place at the Giro doesn't suggest that a sudden jump to the top five overall is incoming. First, they need to break that top 10, then the Brit can continue to build as a GC leader if that's the direction he opts for.

"The first goal for the Vuelta needs to be a stage win, and then we need to be realistic, as he can't go from 15th or 16th place to the podium – I think it's very hard," said the Belgian.

"So let's make realistic goals and progress in the GC in a realistic way. And I think the top 10 is the first stop."

Starting with more freshness at the Vuelta

To get there, Pidcock has had a full rest after the Giro, then raced three events in May – two on the mountain bike and one on the road, before he hit out at last week's Arctic Race of Norway. There, he took victory on the queen stage and only lost out on GC to an in-form Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech).

Pidcock has doubled his professional win tally already in 2025, just eight months into his time at Q36.5, but Bogaerts is aware that one at WorldTour-level, or a Grand Tour, is still lacking. With greater freshness heading into the Vuela, he's confident Pidcock can deliver.

"As we said at the beginning of the year, we want to try to win more races, as I think we didn't win enough in the past, so I think every win now is a bonus this year," said Bogaerts to Cyclingnews.

"He's had a proper preparation, in my opinion, and also time enough to train the kind of efforts we are expecting – and I don't think that was possible for Giro.

"But what we wanted from the Giro was consistency and being in the game, consistent every day. I think he achieved that, and that was a good workload for him. But now I think hopefully we can do better in the Vuelta."

He suits the typical hockey stick-style stages, of which there are many at the Vuelta, but can also contest in the versatile sprint finishes against the likes of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who was too strong for Pidcock to better on several occasions at the Giro. Nonetheless, perhaps the added recovery and a route that has several suited stages can bring Pidcock his first Grand Tour stage win since that memorable day on Alpe d'Huez in 2022.

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