Tom Pidcock will make his debut for Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var.
The 21-year-old Brit officially joined the WorldTour squad on February 1, and will use the French stage race as a warm-up in preparation for a number of one-day Classics he’s set to line up for this spring.
Alongside Pidcock for the Ineos Grenadiers will be two Grand Tour winners in Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart, as well as former world time trial champion Rohan Dennis.
This will be Geoghegan Hart’s debut race of 2021, and first since winning the maglia rosa at the 2020 Giro d’Italia. Geraint Thomas, meanwhile, already got his season underway at Étoile de Bessèges.
Pavel Sivakov will ride his first race since last year’s Tour de France, while Dylan van Baarle and Jhonatan Narváez will also open their 2021 accounts.
“We back we back we back we back we back we back we back we back… attttttackkkkkkkkk,” Tao Geoghegan Hart tweeted, apparently at least a little bit excited to be racing again.
After the three-day Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, won by Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) last year, Pidcock will head to the opening weekend in Belgium for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
Then it will be over to Italy for Strade Bianche before returning to Belgium in April for Brabantse Pijl, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Ineos Grenadiers have made a fast start to 2021, taking four wins in the two races they’ve lined up for so far.
At Étoile de Bessèges, world time trial champion Filippo Ganna took the last two stages, winning from a breakaway before an exhibition in his prowess against the clock. Then at the Tour de La Provence, Iván Sosa won the Mont Ventoux stage to secure the overall win, Egan Bernal finishing behind him up Ventoux as well as in the GC.
