Ineos Grenadiers had already cleared Tom Pidcock to resume racing at the end of last week after he recovered from a concussion, but the Briton saw no reason to change his preordained build-up to the Tour of Flanders. He was content to watch (most of) Gent-Wevelgem from the comfort of his couch last weekend before returning to peloton for Dwars door Vlaanderen.
"I turned it off with 30k to go," Pidcock told reporters in Roselare on Wednesday morning. Maybe he had seen enough. "It's been good to watch as a fan, but it's exciting to get back into racing now."
Pidcock crashed out of Tirreno-Adriatico on the final stage, and the subsequent concussion diagnosis ruled him out of Milan-San Remo, where his Ineos teammate Filippo Ganna placed second. "I think it would have been a different race with me and Filippo there in the final," said the Strade Bianche winner. "But it is what it is."
When Ineos announced after Tirreno-Adriatico that Pidcock would take a period of rest "in line with established concussion protocols," it wasn't initially clear if the rest of his Classics campaign was in doubt. Before the start on Wednesday, however, the 23-year-old suggested the period of rest had been a precaution as much as a necessity, and he downplayed its impact on his preparations for the Ronde and the remainder of the Spring.
"I've had two bad concussions before. This one was not so bad, I knew it wasn't so serious, but you have to be careful and take it easy," Pidcock said.
"I think when I hit my head, it was good timing that it was after a hard Tirreno because I had five days easy, so maybe it's not the end of the world.
"The goal is to be the best I can be on Sunday, and today is a good preparation for that. I hope [the layoff] didn't make too much of an impact. I did some good work last week in Andorra, so I think I'll be OK."
Solitary work has its limits, of course, especially at this time of year and in preparation for these kinds of races. Pidcock admitted that he was glad to bank a race day on the cobbles before making his third appearance at the Tour of Flanders at the weekend.
"I always need racing to get in my best shape," he said. "I see that especially in cyclocross, it's hard to replicate that in training. Each year, I learn a bit more about how to do that. I should be OK today. Maybe not at my best, but I should be OK."
Pidcock would reach Waregem in 11th place, finishing in the peloton that came home 15 seconds behind the lone winner Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma). Aside from a cameo acceleration on the Hotond with 65km remaining, Pidcock was largely content to run through the scales in the peloton on Wednesday afternoon.
At the finish, his coach Kurt Bogaerts maintained that the race had passed off in line with Pidcock's hopes. The day's objective, he said, had been for Pidcock to reacquaint himself with the specific rhythms of racing in the Flemish Ardennes ahead of the Tour of Flanders.
Pidcock signalled his intentions for the Spring with a remarkable solo victory at Strade Bianche, but during his absence from the peloton, three riders have marked themselves out as the outstanding favourites for the Ronde. Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, already imperious at Milan-San Remo, proceeded to form the winning break at the E3 Saxo Classic last Friday.
They will be the only men bedecked with five stars when the Flemish newspapers begin ranking their favourites later in the week, but on Wednesday morning, Pidcock was optimistic about his prospects of competing on equal terms with that trio.
"I hope so. That's where I see myself," Pidcock said. "Of course, I'll have to get past the point where they have the raw power and get into the more attritional part of the race. I think that's the important bit."
