Tom Pidcock: I'm going to Tokyo Olympics to win gold
The British all-rounder is confident despite an injury set back after crashing earlier this month
Tom Pidcock has said that he will win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics cross-country mountain bike event after putting in strong displays in recent World Cup events.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider has put in excellent performances across three separate disciplines of cycling, starting the year with cyclo-cross before having a full spring Classics campaign on the road to the summer on the mountain bikes.
But, the 21-year-old did suffer from a crash in training where he broke his collarbone and shoulder, which needed surgery. However, he managed to get back on the bike very quickly and is now putting all his focus onto building to the next World Cup event and the Olympics.
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In an interview with mbr, Pidcock said: "At first when I had the option to go for the mountain bike or road races I was thinking I should commit to the mountain bike as I have a good chance of getting a medal. But now after the last World Cup in Nove Mesto, I’m going to win. That’s where I’m aiming for.
"I’ve had a setback that I need to overcome, but it shouldn’t really affect me. I think I had five days off, and another one with the Covid vaccine and it was horrible, so I lost five or six days. But I was going to have five or six days after the Tour de Suisse anyway, which I would have ridden. So actually it didn’t affect the planning too much."
After his win in Nove Mesto, Pidcock said he was "born to mountain bike" and traced his time growing up on the MTB and BMX bikes, making him stronger on the road. But he is concentrating on the Olympics before a return to the road.
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"I should be at my best still [for the Olympics]," he added. "I’m only going to ride my mountain bike the week before the Les Gets World Cup, it’s all up the road at the moment so I don’t jar the shoulder. The only thing is I might lack a bit of confidence at Les Gets but that should be fine."
The British cyclocross champion is currently training in Andorra where he lives. But he has been limited with training as he can't ride in the rain due to a possibility of an infection developing.
The Tokyo Olympics men's cross-country race takes place on Monday, July 26.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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