British rider arrives into the Roubaix Velodrome covered in blisters and sores, but holds on to commendable 17th place finish on debut

Report     !     M.Naveed

A little over three hours after he was disqualified for a sticky bottle tow, Josh Tarling couldn’t believe his eyes when he first bumped into his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Tom Pidcock at the end of Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.

“Ah, you’re dead,” Tarling told his compatriot at the team bus, his face a picture of disbelief when looking down at Pidcock’s battered, bruised and shredded hands. The 24-year-old could only chuckle, as he greeted his much-fresher looking teammate and turned to reflect on a rude awakening at his Paris-Roubaix debut with GCN and Cyclingnews.

“It’s not bad,” he said of a 17th-placed finish in the Roubaix Velodrome. “It was pretty epic to be fair, I mean I couldn’t hold my handlebars at the end, that was my biggest problem.”

It was not Pidcock’s first experience on the cobbles, of course, having won both the junior and under-23 editions of Paris-Roubaix, but he struggled to name any lessons that had carried over to the elite race won by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s a completely different beast I think, the speed today was pretty incredible.

“The race was split from the first sector really, in bits. It was just a day out, to be honest, there’s not really much more I could have done. At the end of the day, the weight comes into play and there’s only so much power I have.”

Pidcock was right in the mix for much of the day, riding through the Trouée d’Arenberg in 10th wheel and just seconds behind the four-man lead group. With the race blown to bits by this point, still more than 90km from the finish, the Brit was certainly well positioned.

As the race edged nearer and nearer to Roubaix, the 24-year-old remained inside the top 20 riders on the road. After Van der Poel had flown the coop with a little under 60km to ride, the chasing group behind splintered and Pidcock was left on the back foot.

The Yorkshireman settled into the fourth chasing group and dug deep for as long as possible, before drifting off the back as Roubaix approached, eventually coming over the line 6:20 down on the race winner, but a commendable 17th place on debut. His determined ride impressed former Paris-Roubaix podium finisher and current Ineos Grenadiers sports director, Ian Stannard.

“Tom did great and he dug in deep at the end there, it is not easy for a guy who is super light,” he told GCN and Cyclingnews.

The topic of Pidcock’s weight has long been a question mark when it comes to his suitability for Paris-Roubaix. Maurice Garin, winner of the race in 1897 and 1898, is commonly thought to be the lightest-ever victor in Roubaix, weighing in at 60kg. Pidcock, meanwhile, tends to be around 58kg at race weight.

Common wisdom would say that the Brit’s performance on Sunday will have bolstered his prospects for Paris-Roubaix in the years to come, but Pidcock remains unconvinced.

“I think it’s more difficult now having done it.”

As for Stannard, the 36-year-old would rather look forward to seeing Pidcock on more favourable terrain at Amstel Gold, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

“I think you go into the Ardennes where it suits him more,” was his answer to Pidcock’s hopes of winning Paris-Roubaix in the future.