'It's great to get the pressure off' – Tom Pidcock opens 2026 account with victory in Spain

It took just seven race days for Tom Pidcock to open his 2026 victory account, as he won the final stage of the Vuelta a Andalucía on Sunday.

The 26-year-old, now in his second season with Pinarello Q36.5, attacked on a short, category-three climb inside 6km to go on stage five. The move initially drew Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United), who Pidcock then dropped with a second kick, before descending solo to the finish line in Lucena.

The race was won overall by Movistar’s Iván Romeo. Pidcock’s victory helped him rise from sixth to third in the general classification, meaning he has now finished on the podium in all three events he has competed in this year.

On his stage win, Pidcock said afterwards: “I think it’s great to get the pressure off and get the hands in the air early in the season in the first block of races. That’s definitely what we were working towards.”

Pidcock opened his season at the two-day Vuelta a la Región de Murcia last week, only racing one stage before the race was cancelled due to high winds. He then placed second to UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Tim Wellens at the Clásica Jaén, a one-day race with gravel sectors.

“The shape was great in Murcia and Jaén, but the weather, and also UAE, got the better of us in those races,” he said.

“The frustration was coming out a little bit [at the Vuelta a Andalucía] after we lost the GC basically on stage two. Even though the legs are so good, it’s not easy always to show it. I think also the parcours was not actually as hard as perhaps we thought. We didn’t look into it well enough, which is an oversight on our part.”

The Olympic mountain bike champion began the year in Chile, where he and six other Pinarello Q36.5 riders travelled for a pre-season altitude camp.

“We’ve trained super hard this winter. We made a big commitment as well as a team, both financially and taking a, not a risk, but trying something new to go to Chile and train there,” he said.

“It’s always difficult when you come from training so hard to get into the racing and be able to put it all on the line. But it’s great for us as a team that we can get a victory under our belt already.”

Pidcock is next expected to compete at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on 28 February, before returning to Strade Bianche on 7 March. He finished runner-up to Tadej Pogačar in the Italian Classic last spring.