Tour de France 2024: Tom Pidcock ready to be 'aggressive' in hunt for yellow jersey - 'It's possible'
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Published 26/06/2024 at 20:41 GMT
Tom Pidcock says he has been dreaming of taking the yellow jersey ahead of the Tour de France, which gets underway in Florence this weekend. The 24-year-old Ineos Grenadiers rider will join Geraint Thomas in supporting Carlos Rodriguez and Egan Bernal but plans to ride aggressively and disrupt the competition. Pidcock also plans to defend the Olympic cross-country mountain gold he won in Tokyo.
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Tom Pidcock is dreaming of taking the yellow jersey ahead of the 2024 Tour de France, which gets underway in Florence this weekend.
In 2022, the Brit became the youngest stage winner at Alpe d’Huez, but this year he has high hopes of pulling on the leader's jersey on the opening weekend.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider, speaking on Wednesday, made it clear that he plans to target the lead in the opening stages.
"For sure it's possible," Pidcock said when asked if he can grasp the yellow jersey. "It's kind of what I've been dreaming of this last month when I've been training hard.
"There's a lot of guys who will already be having the same dream so it's not going to be easy, but we're going to give it a good shot.
"I want to race aggressively and try to win some stages," he added.
"Initially I don't want to lose time in the GC for the sake of it, but if I need to do that in order to achieve those goals of winning stages, then I will later in the race."
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The 24-year-old also plans to defend the Olympic cross-country mountain gold medal that he won in Tokyo, and consequently has had to re-evaluate his goals for the Tour this year.
"I think next year is the first year that anyone will see what I'm actually capable of on GC here," the Yorkshireman said.
Carlos Rodriguez and Egan Bernal are co-leaders for INEOS this year. Pidcock and Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas will ride in support, but both will do so aggressively in an attempt to disrupt the competition.
"We want to come out of this race with success and however it comes is going to benefit us all," Pidcock said.
"If we’re in the last week and fighting for the podium with one of these guys then we're going to go all in for that.
"I think if I was going for GC and so were Carlos and Egan, it's never easy for everybody because we’re all ambitious."
He added: "If we get a stage win, it will take the pressure off a little.
"We want to race aggressively. How the team raced in the Giro was nice to see. That's what we want to do here as well."
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One of the overriding narratives heading into the Tour is the dominance of Tadej Pogacar and the Slovenian's goal of pulling off a Giro-Tour double, a feat not achieved since Marco Pantani won both races in 1998.
It was at the Giro in May this year that Ineos' Jhonatan Narváez took the first pink jersey of the race as he kept pace with Pogacar.
"Of course we know who will be good and who will make a difference already. I think UAE have been out on the course today," Pidcock said.
"I think they’re going to want to make a difference already at the start of this race knowing that Jonas Vingegaard is a bit of an unknown. I think they will want to put their cards on the table early in case he comes good in the final week.”
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Tour de France this summer, with live coverage running June 29 to July 21.
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