Tom Pidcock will not ride Paris-Roubaix after World Championships in 2021

Olympic gold medallist says he's getting better every day at the Vuelta but will only focus on World Championships this season

Tom Pidcock in the breakaway at the Vuelta a España 2021
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Tom Pidcock has confirmed that he will focus on the World Championships before having rehab on tendonitis in his knee, missing Paris-Roubaix and thw opening cyclocross races in America.

Ineos Grenadiers' mountain bike Olympic gold medallist has been riding his debut Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España in support of his leaders Egan Bernal and Adam Yates who both sit in the top 10 of the overall standings.

After a quiet first week, Pidcock went into the breakaway on stage 14 and managed a very impressive fourth place behind stage winner Romain Bardet (DSM) on the summit finish to Pico Villuercas.

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Pidcock explained his decision to miss Paris-Roubaix in a team press conference during the second rest day of the Vuelta: "We've decided to stop my season after the Worlds to sort my knee out properly - I've basically had a bit of tendonitis in it. It's been niggling me all year so I'm just going to get to the Worlds, do the best I can there, then call it a day and fix my knee problem.

"After the Vuelta I'll go straight back to Andorra, and I'll be there until the Worlds. Maybe I'll go to Belgium a week before and do some motor pacing and stuff on the flat."

The World Championships are being held in Leuven, Belgium with a challenging hilly route to tackle in the road race which Pidcock will be riding with his Great Britain team-mates.

The 22-year-old won't be riding the early US races in the cyclocross season but will be heading back to the discipline in December to build up to the World Championships in Arkansas, USA in early 2022.

He'll complete the 'cross season before heading onto the road and mountain biking again.

"I'll be focussed on mountain biking but more in the second half of the year. At the start of the year, I'll be at the Classics and maybe the Giro." Pidcock said.

Pidcock said he was not in ideal shape for his debut Grand Tour ahead of the Vuelta, but explained he is "getting stronger each day" as the race enters its third and final week.

"I'm pretty pleased with how I'm going. I definitely wouldn't have been able to do that [fourth on stage 14] in the first week," he continued. 

"I'm kind of pleased with the fact that I'm now two weeks deep into a Grand Tour and feeling better than I did at the start. It's not a stage win or an impressive result for anyone on the outside but it's a nice little achievement for myself."

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

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.