After eight stages of the Vuelta a España, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) remains well-placed on GC, having confirmed his goal of finishing in the top 10 overall, but thinks that the racing so far has been "uneventful".
The Brit is biding his time in Spain, having been up to the task of the climbing days so far, and he currently sits 11th with just 30 seconds separating him from GC favourite Jonas Vingegaard (VIsma-Lease a Bike) in second. Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious leads everyone by more than two and a half minutes, but he gained all of his advantage as part of the stage 6 breakaway.
Pidcock is also eyeing a stage win, a goal he hasn't yet threatened to achieve in the Vuelta, but knows the fireworks will be coming in the second and third week, with much more to be decided as the racing heads west to Galicia and back to Madrid.
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Thursday and Friday of the first week were billed as proper mountain days, but with the break going up the road and winning both, Pidcock could only describe them as "quite uneventful" as he spoke to reporters at the start of stage 8 in Monzón.
"Andorra was hard, but yesterday [on stage 7] the climb was not really hard enough," he added. "It will be interesting to see what happens when we get to a stage where the differences will be made – the GC is still very, very close, obviously apart from Torstein.
"I think I've felt pretty good, I'm maybe waiting for the days when it will actually count."
Pidcock is looking forward to the stages, such as that in Bilbao on stage 11 and potentially the vicious Angliru two days after, where he can properly test himself on a full mountain test and as a GC challenger.
He's not been too surprised by the cagey GC racing as of yet, with Visma-Lease a Bike on the defence and UAE Emirates-XRG allowing several of João Almeida's support squad to go on the attack and win break stages – Jay Vine on stage 6 and Juan Ayuso a day after.
"Well, I think people are racing smart, you know, everybody knows what is to come with the amount of hilltop finishes, and these are hilltop finishes where differences can't really be made because it's not really steep enough – especially with the speed we ride up them," said Pidcock.
"People are being smart, and it makes sense. When we get to the stages where the differences will be made, it will be big fireworks, I think."
Pidcock similarly had no criticism for how UAE have raced, despite Almeida potentially being isolated and complaining about Vingegaard's decision not to pull after he attacked the final climb on stage 7, especially given their hat-trick of victories.
"They've got three stage wins…" he said. "So whatever people's opinions of how they're racing, they've won three, so can't really knock them."
Stage 8 ended up being a standard sprint day into Zaragoza, with Pidcock safely finishing in the peloton as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won from the flat city-centre finish. Uneventful was once again the word Pidcock used to predict how the day might turn out, and despite an exciting sprint finale, the 163km before that confirmed his thoughts.
"It's going to be headwind then head-cross, so I think we're going to have a stressful day, and then another uneventful day with a sprint at the end," he said bluntly. "I'm going to see if I can have a chilled-out day, but we're not going to have that, I think."
Pidcock could have more stage win chances as early as stage 9 and 10, with two hilly, uphill finales into Valdezcaray and El Ferial Larra Belagua, but they could well go to the break as stages 6 and 7 did.
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