At first glance the position of tom pidcock it seems advanced. Almost on par with the Yates brothersA very biker's position, even more so than a cyclocross rider's. But then if you analyze it carefully and do it with the right people, you discover that's not quite the case. In fact...
We wondered how much of the Pidcock biker and motocrosser was in his road setup. In reality, there isn't much of a setup per se, while there is a lot of the riding and "philosophy" of the Pidcock off-roader. We talked about these aspects with Matthew Cornacchione, mechanical historian of the Ineos Grenadiers.
Matteo, looking at him from the outside, it seems like Tom has a very forward position. Very biker-like, with his center of gravity entirely on the pedals, although this tendency is now accepted on the road as well. Is that true?
Tom isn't actually very advanced. In fact, he's the least advanced of ours. It has 9 centimeters of seat setback. I don't think it inherited anything specific from MTB, in this respect it refers a lot to Kurt Bogaerts, his coach and factotum who follows him in everything. For example, He uses the normal seatpost and when I say normal I mean the set-back one and not the straight one. If anything, he inherited the attention to tire pressures from cross-country riders and bikers.
Can you tell us more?
He works very hard on it and he has an incredible sensitivity. He really does a lot of tire testing. For example, before the Strade Bianche, he makes us make a lot of changes, and we talk about adjustments in the order of increasing or decreasing 0,1-0,2 bar. Sometimes we ask him, "Tom, what do you expect me to change by making such a small change?" But he definitely feels it. Sometimes during the reconnaissance... in a minute and a half descent, you put 20” ahead of your teammates. It's almost as if he knows what's around the bend. We have a high-precision digital compressor, and he's always in control.
Other borderline measures?
I'd say the cranks. He's experimenting with shorter ones (and that's a biker thing, ed.). He tested the 165mm on both the road and in track tests, both on the road and in time trials. He even used the 160mm in time trials. At Tirreno, for example, he had a particular setup with a 68-tooth chainring and 160-tooth cranks. The chainring was almost bigger than the crank! But it's nice, because Pidcock is very technical and wants to try everything.
Did you immediately find the ideal setup with the time trial bike?
I can say he's working hard on it. He goes out a lot, because he wants to do good for the Tour de France.
Let's get back to the setback, Matteo. Does it seem so advanced to us because it has a smaller frame than its size?
Exactly. Tom uses a Pinarello Dogma size 46,5, so a little small for her height (170 centimetres, ed.). And she has a I'd say the handlebar stem is normal: 110 mm. The handlebar is 38 cm center-to-center. And the fork has a 47mm rake. I think it rides well for this reason too.
That?
In my opinion these numerous and disastrous falls also depend on the fact that riders are now pushing harder all advanced (you sit in front to exploit the gluteus maximus, the largest and most powerful muscle in the body, ed.), but this is to the detriment of driving.
Interesting, please continue…
By keeping your center of gravity more forward, you have no margin for error. You're immediately on the front wheel, you almost "fall" on it. Tom, on the other hand, in addition to being skilled in his own right, It has an “old-fashioned” position with its setback and “wider” fork with a 47mm rake. Therefore, it is more balanced. Many other riders move forward to squeeze out a few extra watts, but perhaps they fall three times to do so during a week-long stage race. So how useful was this extreme position for you, really?
Another thing we've noticed about Tom is that he moves a lot in the saddle. We often pinch him at the nose, other times at the butt...
It's one of his off-road characteristics. It took him a while to find it on the saddle this year. But that was normal when changing suppliers. We switched to Prologue, which has a very wide range. In one afternoon Tom even tried three saddles. But then, once he found the right one, he worked on it and never changed anything. Even with mountain biking, it took him a while, but it's also true that between cross-country and the classics, he didn't have that much time. After the Tirreno, he inspected the Italian stages of the Tour, then went to Nice, where we have our warehouse, and there he tested the mountain bike saddle, before coming to Sanremo.
And what can you tell us about the tires? We noticed that at Strade Bianche, for example, he was the only one of your guys with 28mm tires…
Basic, We use the 25mm in front and the 28mm in the back. Tom prefers tubeless. Our supplier is Shelf and depending on the type of route, sometimes opt for the TR and sometimes for the TT. This second tire is a little lighter and faster than the first, but at the same time it offers a little less guarantee in terms of puncturesThey are small risks that are taken, but the choice then depends on the route and the rider.
Finally, the relationships. Does Pidcock have any preferences?
Always use the 54-40 even in stages where some of our players choose the 56-44 instead. And it's also fixed when it comes to the sprocket set: always the 11-30, while everyone else opts for the 11-34. It therefore prefers to have a more gradual scale.
