‘Handing over the baton’ as Tom Pidcock marks ‘big day for British cycling’ at Tour de France – Bradley Wiggins

Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins has hailed Tom Pidcock’s historic Stage 12 win on Thursday as “a big day for British cycling” and that it felt like a “handing over of the baton.”

“Still trying to get my head around it…” Wiggins began the show by saying. “Tom Pidcock, I mean what can you say about Tom Pidcock that hasn’t already been said? Other than that he’s living up the hype isn’t he?”

Stephens agreed: “We’ve talked about him being a potential Tour winner haven’t we, but every single race he does he goes to another level, another page is being turned.

“The whole day was a big day for British cycling but it was ushering in a new era perhaps?”

“And also it was apt that we had Tom winning, Froomey third and then Geraint coming up behind him because I think it was a handing over of the baton wasn’t it? And he [Pidcock] would have been inspired by them [Froome and Thomas] as he was growing up wasn’t he? It was fantastic.”

Wiggins went on to say that he had run into Froome’s family in the hotel after the stage, and had congratulated him during their Facetime call. He reiterated something he has repeatedly said, that people have downplayed Froome’s injury the more time has passed since it happened.

“I think Chris deserved that, it’s testament to where he’s come from and testament to him as an athlete, I don’t think people realise just quite how bad he was when he crashed. That’s a big day for him that, that shows he’s still a world-class rider on his day.”

Stephens echoed him adding: “Totally, and apparently he’s not far off the numbers he was putting out when he won the Tour.”

The pair then moved on to Pidcock’s thrilling descent with Wiggins calling it a “joy to watch” modern riders who have brought over skills from cyclo-cross.

“A lot of people thought it was borderline dangerous but he pushes the limits, and this new generation of riders,” said Stephens.

“Well he controls it,” Wiggins interrupted. “And I was saying in the prologue he was doing it in the rain and the way he was taking the corners compared to other riders, and the projection he was getting out and the momentum he was carrying I said on TV it was a joy to watch someone handle their bike like he does.

“And there’s only a few riders who can do that, obviously it comes from a cyclo-cross background, Pogacar’s one because he was a national cyclo-cross champion wasn’t he? Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, it’s a joy to watch them transfer that to the road.”

Stephens added a fascinating point about tyre pressure, saying: “Going back to that TT bit about his ability to corner and the confidence that he has, he does generally run a slightly lower tyre pressure than everybody else because it gives him that extra little bit of grip and he’s light as well.

“So he’s running a lower pressure but because he’s so light it doesn’t actually make that much difference with rubber resistance, it just means he can corner, really bank it over and as you say do things that are almost superhuman and to a lot of people look dangerous, but clearly they’re not because from what I did see there were no sketchy moments, no locking up into a corner they’re all clean smooth lines.”

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