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."
