Tom Pidcock and the Paris Olympics
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2024 9:04 am
For those who don't know, Pidcock was racing the TDF and then scheduled to head straight from there to Paris to train for both the XC race and the Road Race in France.
The plans may have been slightly scuppered by a COVID + test in the Tour, but he's still heading to both apparently.
This is a little while ago but interesting to me.
Interview with Tom Pidcock Ahead of the Tour de Suisse
Sarah Moore: When Pinarello told you that they'd be developing this mountain bike for you, what did those first conversations look like?
Tom Pidcock: They said they were going to make a bike. You know, because obviously I was using an unbranded bike, kind of just we put our own bike together. And I said, right, brilliant, okay, but it needs to be as good as or better than this bike. Otherwise I'm not riding it. And they said, right, okay. And then went off and did it.
Sarah Moore: You won the Olympics on that unbranded bike, right? And so you had some standards that they needed to meet before you were happy to ride the bike. And what were some of those things that you told them that the bike needed to have in order for you to be happy racing it?
Tom Pidcock: For me, the big thing was stiffness. Out the saddle, the bottom bracket area to be stiff, you know, along with the forks and to be able to get the power transfer from the pedals, you know, to go forwards. I think it was quite beneficial having that period where I kind of could choose my mountain bike because I got to test a lot of different ones.
And some of them were so sluggish out the saddle. Okay, yeah, they were great downhill, they worked well, but it's a cross -country bike, it's not an Enduro bike, it's not a downhill bike. The difference is made on the uphill, and you can only really lose the race on the downhill, I think.
Sarah Moore: How many bikes did you try before you settled on the bike that you rode for the last Olympics?
Tom Pidcock: There were a few I wasn't allowed to try, but I'd ridden before, so I think I'd tried about seven.
Sarah Moore: Wow, that's a lot of bikes. How did you fit that in with all your road racing?
Tom Pidcock: I think we did like two days and we just like on a circuit and we, or maybe even two separate occasions, going through riding each bike the same circuit. A lot of work, a lot of work for the mechanics getting each bike set up for me.
Yeah, that was, it was quite time consuming, but I think it was worthwhile in the end.
Sarah Moore: Yeah, so that was before the last Olympics, you were testing those bikes. And then, so come after Milan-San Remo in 2023, you were testing the Pinarello bike for the first time. What did that look like? Was it another two-day affair, like a circuit? What were you prioritizing?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was a circuit in St. Raphael near where Pauline lives and we had a circuit and we rode the old bike as a reference and then we jumped on a new one and I remember being really apprehensive. I jumped on it but I didn't really want to pedal. I just kind of cruised down the track. I didn't want to feel like what it was in case I was disappointed and I was immediately like, wow, actually, this is really impressive, you know. Pinarello was never, okay, they made a mountain bike before, but in my opinion, they never made a world-class mountain bike.
So, you know, it's a big task. I think they'll probably say the same.
Sarah Moore: So you were pretty apprehensive on that first ride that it.
Tom Pidcock: I was apprehensive, yeah, for sure. But they really did surprise me. I knew when Fausto wants to do something, he puts his mind to it, they do it, and they do it properly. But even so, I was still a bit nervous, but they did a bloody good job.
Sarah Moore: I mean, was there a chance, like, if you didn't like the bike and they didn't want you riding another bike that you just couldn't ride mountain bikes during your time with the Ineos Grenadiers?
Tom Pidcock: I think to be honest, you know, I said there might have been some conversations and then we might have had to go back to the drawing board and change some bits. Luckily that didn't happen because that would have been a bit awkward, wouldn't it?
Sarah Moore: So was the bike kind of spot on from what you were expecting and hoping for on those first rides, or did you have to kind of change a couple things?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, I mean as soon as I rode it. I was like wow, that's brilliant. You know, it handled really well, it felt fast, I was just really happy. I was like right fine. I can go home now. But obviously there's always things to improve on and I will always push, you know, it needs to be lighter, stiffer. Initially we had some problems with the linkage at the back. It rattled a little bit, but it was easy to fix. And, you know, to be honest, it was quite amazing at how little we did have to do from that initial prototype. And the turnaround as well, like they did it in less than a year, they built this bike. So maybe in six months, I don't even know when it started, but it was quick and it was impressive.
And when a brand gives that sort of dedication to you, you sort of owe them in return, you know, and that's nice to go into races having that feeling that you need to give back because of what they've given you. And I think that's a nice relationship to have with a sponsor.
Sarah Moore: Were you and Pauline in agreement about how the bike rode and what you were looking for in a bike? How did the testing work like back and forth with the two of you and Pinarello?
Tom Pidcock: It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? I just keep saying, yeah, it was great. But it's actually kind of the truth, we were both just really happy with it and how it rode. And we're not the sort of people who spend ages, you know, over the fine details of things. We just expect that, you know, we have high standards. We know what we want. And that's it. If it's good, right, it's good. We crack on. We train and we race. So that's what was good about it. We don't want to waste time, keep going over stuff, trying to fix it and people not listening or whatever.
Sarah Moore: Absolutely. And you rode the bike on the Paris Olympic course last year. What did you think of the course and how the bike suited the course?
Tom Pidcock: Well the course is a bit gravelly. Yeah, it's not the best course in the world, let's be honest. I know Pauline will be riding the hardtail, that's for sure. To me, it's going be the decision. I didn't go to the, they had some test days now last week or something, I didn't go. I'll treat it like every other race. Okay, we go a little bit earlier than the World Cup maybe, but you can overthink things and spend too much time on them.
Sarah Moore: I guess you're still deciding whether you're going to use that bike or the hardtail at the Olympics
Tom Pidcock: Yeah exactly, the decision of hardtail or full suspension is... Yeah I'll make that a bit later, I'm gonna try and ride the hardtail a little bit more, I haven't ridden it much but you know when we've got such fast climbs there it could make a difference.
So yeah, I think that's just the decision to make at some point.
Sarah Moore: So it's really actually two bikes that they developed for you, basically. I was kind of focused on the full suspension one.
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, that's true actually. They did it with two bikes. I mean, I think the full suspension was for me, I just said, you don't need to make hard tails, just make a full suspension and Pauline was like, I want a hardtail.
Sarah Moore: And for the Paris Olympic course, that's obviously her main goal as well. And knowing that it was more of a bit more gravel, less technical course, a hard tail is probably might be the choice there. I guess we'll see what you decide to use. And for Nova Mesto, what settings did you use on the bike? Did you have it in the 90 millimeter or the 100 millimeter setting?
Tom Pidcock: I think I've, I don't change the back, so it is what it is. I thought it was 100 and 110, but I don't know. I think it's just standard 100-100 front and rear. If I think Nove Mesto, maybe I think I had 110 in the front, because there's some pretty big hits on that course.
Sarah Moore: And you jumped straight off the road bike onto this bike at Nove Mesto with one day of practice, I think I heard.
Tom Pidcock: I did one day's training before I left for the race here.
Sarah Moore: And how do you just switch from the road bike to this bike so easily?
Tom Pidcock: Well, a big thing is like cleat position. So to have my shoes feeling the same, that's important. So then you can jump on and you're not like, achy or this is hard, you know, different muscles working. And the rest just comes naturally, really, to be honest. A bit rusty at first and then yeah, it just all comes back.
Sarah Moore: And so cleat position, is there anything else that you do to kind of make that transition easier?
Tom Pidcock: No, if your feet are in the same place then everything else is just... Okay.
Sarah Moore: What about the wide handlebars? Isn't that kind of a little different from a road bike? Right.
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, of course it's different, but it's not affecting how you pedal. So, and obviously it's, having actually spent, since I was young on these bikes, it comes natural, you know. Like riding a unicycle. I used to ride a unicycle, but I can still jump on one and ride it.
Sarah Moore: Really? Wow. So you need a Pinarello branded unicycle next? And you're racing the Tour de France and then you have one week to reset before the Olympics. What's that week gonna look like?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, we'll see about that one.
I'll go straight to Paris because this year the Tour de France finishes in Nice because of the Olympics and then yeah it's all about recovering and you know riding the mountain bike obviously and also yeah getting the explosive fast fast working anaerobic I'll have plenty of endurance that's for sure. So yes, it's not it's not it's not an easy transition that's for sure we know that, but it's a challenge we're up for.
Sarah Moore: Yeah, you said in Nove Mesto, the first lap kind of felt like a short track race. So how do you kind of like get that speed after three weeks of kind of more longer endurance-based rides?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, exactly. They start really fast now. The short track races now are really fast. The level is very high. And on an Olympic course like that, it's going to be super fast from the start. And yeah, it's not rocket science to go from the Tour to that. You know, you need to do short efforts. You need to be explosive. You need to be able to hit high heart rates, you need to be able to recover, you need to recover from the Tour. Yeah, it's just time is what will be against us.
Sarah Moore: So you've got a plan already for every single one of those eight days?
Tom Pidcock: No, you can't plan that now, can you? Depends on how I go through the Tour, how I come out the Tour. It's... Yeah.
Sarah Moore: AThank you so much for joining us and wishing you all the best in the Tour de France and also looking forward to seeing you on that new Pinarello, either the hardtail or the full suspension bike in Paris.
Tom Pidcock: Alright, thank you guys. Thanks for having me.
The plans may have been slightly scuppered by a COVID + test in the Tour, but he's still heading to both apparently.
This is a little while ago but interesting to me.
Interview with Tom Pidcock Ahead of the Tour de Suisse
Sarah Moore: When Pinarello told you that they'd be developing this mountain bike for you, what did those first conversations look like?
Tom Pidcock: They said they were going to make a bike. You know, because obviously I was using an unbranded bike, kind of just we put our own bike together. And I said, right, brilliant, okay, but it needs to be as good as or better than this bike. Otherwise I'm not riding it. And they said, right, okay. And then went off and did it.
Sarah Moore: You won the Olympics on that unbranded bike, right? And so you had some standards that they needed to meet before you were happy to ride the bike. And what were some of those things that you told them that the bike needed to have in order for you to be happy racing it?
Tom Pidcock: For me, the big thing was stiffness. Out the saddle, the bottom bracket area to be stiff, you know, along with the forks and to be able to get the power transfer from the pedals, you know, to go forwards. I think it was quite beneficial having that period where I kind of could choose my mountain bike because I got to test a lot of different ones.
And some of them were so sluggish out the saddle. Okay, yeah, they were great downhill, they worked well, but it's a cross -country bike, it's not an Enduro bike, it's not a downhill bike. The difference is made on the uphill, and you can only really lose the race on the downhill, I think.
Sarah Moore: How many bikes did you try before you settled on the bike that you rode for the last Olympics?
Tom Pidcock: There were a few I wasn't allowed to try, but I'd ridden before, so I think I'd tried about seven.
Sarah Moore: Wow, that's a lot of bikes. How did you fit that in with all your road racing?
Tom Pidcock: I think we did like two days and we just like on a circuit and we, or maybe even two separate occasions, going through riding each bike the same circuit. A lot of work, a lot of work for the mechanics getting each bike set up for me.
Yeah, that was, it was quite time consuming, but I think it was worthwhile in the end.
Sarah Moore: Yeah, so that was before the last Olympics, you were testing those bikes. And then, so come after Milan-San Remo in 2023, you were testing the Pinarello bike for the first time. What did that look like? Was it another two-day affair, like a circuit? What were you prioritizing?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was a circuit in St. Raphael near where Pauline lives and we had a circuit and we rode the old bike as a reference and then we jumped on a new one and I remember being really apprehensive. I jumped on it but I didn't really want to pedal. I just kind of cruised down the track. I didn't want to feel like what it was in case I was disappointed and I was immediately like, wow, actually, this is really impressive, you know. Pinarello was never, okay, they made a mountain bike before, but in my opinion, they never made a world-class mountain bike.
So, you know, it's a big task. I think they'll probably say the same.
Sarah Moore: So you were pretty apprehensive on that first ride that it.
Tom Pidcock: I was apprehensive, yeah, for sure. But they really did surprise me. I knew when Fausto wants to do something, he puts his mind to it, they do it, and they do it properly. But even so, I was still a bit nervous, but they did a bloody good job.
Sarah Moore: I mean, was there a chance, like, if you didn't like the bike and they didn't want you riding another bike that you just couldn't ride mountain bikes during your time with the Ineos Grenadiers?
Tom Pidcock: I think to be honest, you know, I said there might have been some conversations and then we might have had to go back to the drawing board and change some bits. Luckily that didn't happen because that would have been a bit awkward, wouldn't it?
Sarah Moore: So was the bike kind of spot on from what you were expecting and hoping for on those first rides, or did you have to kind of change a couple things?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, I mean as soon as I rode it. I was like wow, that's brilliant. You know, it handled really well, it felt fast, I was just really happy. I was like right fine. I can go home now. But obviously there's always things to improve on and I will always push, you know, it needs to be lighter, stiffer. Initially we had some problems with the linkage at the back. It rattled a little bit, but it was easy to fix. And, you know, to be honest, it was quite amazing at how little we did have to do from that initial prototype. And the turnaround as well, like they did it in less than a year, they built this bike. So maybe in six months, I don't even know when it started, but it was quick and it was impressive.
And when a brand gives that sort of dedication to you, you sort of owe them in return, you know, and that's nice to go into races having that feeling that you need to give back because of what they've given you. And I think that's a nice relationship to have with a sponsor.
Sarah Moore: Were you and Pauline in agreement about how the bike rode and what you were looking for in a bike? How did the testing work like back and forth with the two of you and Pinarello?
Tom Pidcock: It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? I just keep saying, yeah, it was great. But it's actually kind of the truth, we were both just really happy with it and how it rode. And we're not the sort of people who spend ages, you know, over the fine details of things. We just expect that, you know, we have high standards. We know what we want. And that's it. If it's good, right, it's good. We crack on. We train and we race. So that's what was good about it. We don't want to waste time, keep going over stuff, trying to fix it and people not listening or whatever.
Sarah Moore: Absolutely. And you rode the bike on the Paris Olympic course last year. What did you think of the course and how the bike suited the course?
Tom Pidcock: Well the course is a bit gravelly. Yeah, it's not the best course in the world, let's be honest. I know Pauline will be riding the hardtail, that's for sure. To me, it's going be the decision. I didn't go to the, they had some test days now last week or something, I didn't go. I'll treat it like every other race. Okay, we go a little bit earlier than the World Cup maybe, but you can overthink things and spend too much time on them.
Sarah Moore: I guess you're still deciding whether you're going to use that bike or the hardtail at the Olympics
Tom Pidcock: Yeah exactly, the decision of hardtail or full suspension is... Yeah I'll make that a bit later, I'm gonna try and ride the hardtail a little bit more, I haven't ridden it much but you know when we've got such fast climbs there it could make a difference.
So yeah, I think that's just the decision to make at some point.
Sarah Moore: So it's really actually two bikes that they developed for you, basically. I was kind of focused on the full suspension one.
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, that's true actually. They did it with two bikes. I mean, I think the full suspension was for me, I just said, you don't need to make hard tails, just make a full suspension and Pauline was like, I want a hardtail.
Sarah Moore: And for the Paris Olympic course, that's obviously her main goal as well. And knowing that it was more of a bit more gravel, less technical course, a hard tail is probably might be the choice there. I guess we'll see what you decide to use. And for Nova Mesto, what settings did you use on the bike? Did you have it in the 90 millimeter or the 100 millimeter setting?
Tom Pidcock: I think I've, I don't change the back, so it is what it is. I thought it was 100 and 110, but I don't know. I think it's just standard 100-100 front and rear. If I think Nove Mesto, maybe I think I had 110 in the front, because there's some pretty big hits on that course.
Sarah Moore: And you jumped straight off the road bike onto this bike at Nove Mesto with one day of practice, I think I heard.
Tom Pidcock: I did one day's training before I left for the race here.
Sarah Moore: And how do you just switch from the road bike to this bike so easily?
Tom Pidcock: Well, a big thing is like cleat position. So to have my shoes feeling the same, that's important. So then you can jump on and you're not like, achy or this is hard, you know, different muscles working. And the rest just comes naturally, really, to be honest. A bit rusty at first and then yeah, it just all comes back.
Sarah Moore: And so cleat position, is there anything else that you do to kind of make that transition easier?
Tom Pidcock: No, if your feet are in the same place then everything else is just... Okay.
Sarah Moore: What about the wide handlebars? Isn't that kind of a little different from a road bike? Right.
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, of course it's different, but it's not affecting how you pedal. So, and obviously it's, having actually spent, since I was young on these bikes, it comes natural, you know. Like riding a unicycle. I used to ride a unicycle, but I can still jump on one and ride it.
Sarah Moore: Really? Wow. So you need a Pinarello branded unicycle next? And you're racing the Tour de France and then you have one week to reset before the Olympics. What's that week gonna look like?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, we'll see about that one.
I'll go straight to Paris because this year the Tour de France finishes in Nice because of the Olympics and then yeah it's all about recovering and you know riding the mountain bike obviously and also yeah getting the explosive fast fast working anaerobic I'll have plenty of endurance that's for sure. So yes, it's not it's not it's not an easy transition that's for sure we know that, but it's a challenge we're up for.
Sarah Moore: Yeah, you said in Nove Mesto, the first lap kind of felt like a short track race. So how do you kind of like get that speed after three weeks of kind of more longer endurance-based rides?
Tom Pidcock: Yeah, exactly. They start really fast now. The short track races now are really fast. The level is very high. And on an Olympic course like that, it's going to be super fast from the start. And yeah, it's not rocket science to go from the Tour to that. You know, you need to do short efforts. You need to be explosive. You need to be able to hit high heart rates, you need to be able to recover, you need to recover from the Tour. Yeah, it's just time is what will be against us.
Sarah Moore: So you've got a plan already for every single one of those eight days?
Tom Pidcock: No, you can't plan that now, can you? Depends on how I go through the Tour, how I come out the Tour. It's... Yeah.
Sarah Moore: AThank you so much for joining us and wishing you all the best in the Tour de France and also looking forward to seeing you on that new Pinarello, either the hardtail or the full suspension bike in Paris.
Tom Pidcock: Alright, thank you guys. Thanks for having me.
