Tour de France: Tom Pidcock on course to join higher echelon of bike racers

Pidcock embarks on his second Tour de France in the Basque city of Bilbao on Saturday as the powerful British squad try to win back the yellow jersey.

The 23-year-old from Leeds is one of the fastest rising talents in world cycling having won a world cyclo-cross title, the Olympic mountain bike gold medal, a stage of the Tour de France on his debut last year and Strade Bianchi in the Spring Classics season.

It is an eye-catching record for a young man who has been hyped for much of his adult life.

And Swift, himself a former two-time British champion and at 35 a reliable road captain who helped Geraint Thomas finish May’s Giro d’Italia in second place, feels Pidcock is steadily adapting to his new-found notoriety.

“I’ve known Tom for quite a few years now, I’ve been with him when he came on training camps, I was there when he won his junior world title,” Swift told The Yorkshire Post. "I’ve seen his progression and development. I think he’s been thrust into the limelight quite quickly, throughout his career, but the way he handles himself is good and he’s maturing with that side of things.

“When you’re quite young and having that pressure and limelight it can be quite a daunting thing.

“He’s a massive talent. He’s not got multiple wins but the ones that he’s got are massive wins – Olympic Games, Tour de France stage.

"You don’t get that without having some sort of talent. They’re not wins by fluke or by chance.

“He’s progressing, it’s all part of a longer process, but as long as he keeps making steps forward he’s going to have a very bright future – not that’s he’s not had a bright past.”

Although team-mates, Swift is from an era when riders peaked in their late 20s, even into their 30s, evidenced by the Rotherham rider himself winning the British road race title twice in the last four years.

Pidcock is growing up as part of an era of versatile riders who pay no heed to tradition.

The Tour de France has become a young man’s game; Tadej Pogacar became a double champion aged just 22 in 2021, Egan Bernal – Pidcock’s Ineos team-mate – was 22 when he took yellow in 2019, and Jonas Vingegaard 25 when he won last year, while Remco Evenepoel won the Vuelta Espana and the world road race title last year at 22.

“I think that’s just cycling in general now, the way that the sport has evolved,” offered Swift.

“It used to be a slow burn of a trajectory, build up, progress and be fast at the end, but now you see the racing opening up and you’ve got younger guys who love their racing and the fans are liking it lot more.

“I think Tom is dialled into that way of racing, you saw the way he won Strade Bianchi, he went on a big break there.

“These guys are bike racers and they just love to ride their bike. They deal with whatever consequences come after that, whether you blow up or get caught, you deal with that when you deal with it.

“Tom’s definitely in that echelon, the more he progresses he’ll continue to make marks.”