Ineos Grenadiers endured a day to forget at Sunday's Tour of Flanders, finishing the second Monument of the season with no riders in the top 20, Ben Turner fracturing his arm in a crash, and leader Tom Pidcock suffering a hunger knock.
The Briton headed into the race among the best of the rest among the top favourites behind the 'big three' of Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, and Wout van Aert. However, he would end the day in 52nd place, finishing alongside Julian Alaphilippe at eight minutes down on solo winner Pogačar.
Pidcock took to Instagram on Monday morning to assess his Sunday, praising his team but admitting that he had made "a stupid mistake" by not eating enough during the 274km race.
"What a job these boys did yesterday," Pidcock wrote. "Unfortunately, I couldn’t repay them. It was all mint until I had a complete hunger flat.
"I’m amazed I even made it to the finish. A stupid mistake, but there’s always next year. Get well soon Ben Turner."
It was a disappointing way to end a cobbled campaign which had started brightly but was derailed by a concussion suffered at Tirreno-Adriatico, leading him to miss E3 Saxo Classic as well as Milan-San Remo, leaving Dwars door Vlaanderen as his only warm-up for De Ronde.
The 23-year-old does have his stunning solo win at Strade Bianche in the bag though, with that title along with a stage win at the Volta ao Algarve contributing to what has been a successful early season.
Now he's set to take aim at the hills, with Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège all on his provisional schedule. He won Brabantse two years ago before infamously missing out in the photo finish at Amstel, so Pidcock will be among the favourites later this month.
"A couple weeks at home now and then back for the Ardennes," Pidcock concluded his post.
Last season, Pidcock and his teammates had been among the top performers of the spring, racing on the front foot with a young squad and going on to win Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold Race, and Paris-Roubaix, as well as second in Flanders.
This time around it has been a different story – even if those races lie in the coming weeks – with Pidcock's fifth place at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Filippo Ganna's 10th at E3 their top results so far.
This Sunday's Paris-Roubaix will see the team line up without Turner, while their winner last spring, Dylan van Baarle, is now at Jumbo-Visma. Ganna and 20-year-old American talent Magnus Sheffield are set to lead the British squad at the cobbled Classics finale before attention turns to the Ardennes.
