From catching COVID-19 at the Tour de Suisse to now riding into Paris with a top 20 finish and, more importantly, victory on L'Alpe d'Huez under his belt, Tom Pidcock has enjoyed what has perhaps been the most impressive Tour de France of the 40 debutants who took the start in Copenhagen three weeks ago.
The 22-year-old has been a vital part of what, ultimately, has been a successful Tour campaign for Ineos Grenadiers, which saw Geraint Thomas return to the final podium while Adam Yates rounded out the top 10 despite suffering a chest infection in the final week.
Elsewhere, the team also captured the team classification, only the second time they have won the prize after 2017. For Pidcock – who, along with Aleksandr Vlasov, Fabio Jakobsen, Quinn Simmons, and Matteo Jorgenson, has enjoyed a debut Tour to savour – the race was a learning experience as well as a triumph.
"The last few days have been quite hard, and I guess it kind of shows that I haven't really done this before," Pidcock said at the start of the penultimate road stage to Cahors on Friday.
"I've not had this in my legs before. The Vuelta doesn't really count – there, I was getting better through the race. There's a lot of things I've learned."
Pidcock also said that he's been writing down observations and things he's learned as he's progressed through the race, adding that the notes would be something he could refer back to when he returns to the race in the future.
"It's more going through it, learning, writing stuff down. Every little thing makes a difference," he said.
"When I joined the team, they said I should write stuff down as I learn and here every day I've been writing everything down. So, I've got a pretty good idea for next year, a pretty good routine and everything."
Now, after three weeks of hard racing at what has been the fastest Tour de France in history – some race to make his debut – Pidcock will head into Paris alongside seven Ineos teammates as one of the few complete teams left in the race.
His win atop the Tour's most celebrated mountain will rank high on a palmarès which already includes a cyclo-cross world title and an Olympic mountain bike title. 10 days ago, the Yorkshireman soloed home from a strong breakaway group up the mountain where he made his international MTB debut just three years ago.
Speaking after the final time trial in Rocamadour, he said that he could reflect on his Tour now that the "proper" stages are over and done with ahead of the final, ceremonial, finale to Paris.
"Now that that's finished, yeah," he said when asked if he used the 40km test to think back on the race.
"I didn't go full gas. Some people wanted me to go full gas, but I would prefer to enjoy the last two days of the Tour de France. The final, I guess, proper 40km was quite nice, actually. A TT by yourself, no stress in the bunch, all the crowds. It was relatively pleasant."
With nothing left to fight for as the race heads to the Champs-Elysées, Pidcock said that he's eagerly anticipating the final stage of the 2022 Tour, with the atmosphere and shared sense of accomplishment aspects he was particularly looking forward to.
"To be honest, I'm just massively looking forward to it. I think it's going to be really nice," he said. "[For] everyone it's a big achievement just getting there in the Tour and, no matter where everyone's finished or what anyone's achieved, everyone is just happy to be in Paris.
"I think that's going to be a really nice feeling, obviously along with the atmosphere and all that."
