Pidcock Crushes Elite Climbers at Milan-Torino

Tom Pidcock looks pretty ready for Milan-San Remo.

In fact, that might be an understatement given his mega-watt winning attack Wednesday at Milan-Torino.

The Brit launched away from a bunch of elite climbers on the Superga summit finish with 600 meters of steeps still to go, and he didn’t need to look back.

Tobias Halland Johannessen and Primož Roglič led the chase but were nowhere near closing the gap. They finished 4 and 5 seconds back, respectively.

Not bad for Pidcock on a day of iffy legs.

“It was a weird day. It felt almost like the first race of the season. I felt the accelerations in the legs all day,” he said at the finish. “I hesitated to attack but eventually I did and the timing was right.

“A win is a win. No win is easy to come by so it’s nice to get this one,” Pidcock said.

Former Milan-Torino champion Mark Cavendish was (randomly) on-hand to award Pidcock the winner’s flowers for his second victory of the season.

Pidcock’s upstart Pinarello-Q36.5 squad delivered a standout performance Wednesday as it builds toward an ambitious season centered on the Tour de France.

The second-tier team was active in keeping its 26-year-old leader in position through the final 40km and its frantic double ascent of the Superga.

Now they’ve got to do it all over again at Milan-San Remo, but against Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.

Ouch.

“Milan-San Remo is very different, it’s very explosive,” Pidcock said at the finish Wednesday. “This shows I’m in good shape, but that doesn’t mean everything.

“Also last year I was in really good shape [for San Remo], but then I was in the worst position on the Cipressa,” he said. “We’ll do our best.”

Milan-Torino results: