'It's really energising to go to different places': Tom Pidcock to ride Arctic Race of Norway ahead of Vuelta a España

Tom Pidcock will return to road competition at the Arctic Race of Norway in early August ahead of the Vuelta a España.

The 26-year-old was recently crowned European mountain bike champion for a second time during a break from road racing. His last road race being the Giro d’Italia in May, where he finished 16th. Pidcock also recently won a round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Andorra where he lives.

He is now back in full training as he begins the build up for his second Grand Tour of the season. Pidcock will lead Q36.5 at the Vuelta as he looks to build on a consistent showing at the Giro. Part of his final preparation will now involve a trip to Scandinavia next week.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Pidcock's coach, Kurt Bogaerts, explained the decision to select the Arctic Race as his final Vuelta tune up and reflected on a successful start to life at Q36.5.

"I think whenever you're going into a Grand Tour then it's good to test the legs beforehand on the road," Bogaerts said. "It's really energising for Tom to go to different places and do races that he hasn't done before. This is a race we are yet to do, which is also why we were also keen to do the AlUla Tour earlier this year, we also never did Ruta del Sol.

"We had heard a lot about the Arctic Race, we heard it was a nice race and so I think it will be ideal for us to test the legs there. We had three opportunities with the team - we could do the Tour de l'Ain, the Vuelta a Burgos or the Arctic Race.

"We chose the last one with Tom and it will be a really good opener, a good test for us ahead of this next block of racing."

Pidcock hit the ground running at Q36.5 after his transfer from Ineos Grenadiers during the winter. He won the AlUla Tour in late January before his Classics campaign. During that period, Pidcock took second at Strade Bianche behind Tadej Pogačar in another solid showing at the one day race in Tuscany.

"We were very pleased with second. I think in general Tom has had a really consistent season so far and with the Giro he was really good after such an intense block of racing early on," Bogaerts added.

"He was super competitive which was exactly as we had hoped for. He had done a lot of racing up until the Giro finished, which I was really pleased with. We then did the off-road stuff and that was a really good change mid-season; taking the European champions jersey on the mountain bike has given him a lot of faith and belief for the rest of the year now."

As well as the Arctic Race and Vuelta, Bogaerts explained that Pidcock will likely race the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda. Pidcock also previously told Cycling Weekly that he will ride the late season Italian races and the Gravel World Championships in the Netherlands.

"Hopefully for the second part of the season we can now continue that form from early on and carry on to achieve our goals," Bogaerts said.

"Tom has really worked himself back up again physically during the break after the Giro. We've certainly noticed that in a few checks that we’ve done where we've seen it in the numbers that he has produced too - the best check though is always in race of course.

"We know that mountain biking is a really strong discipline for him so keeping on top of that area is important for both him and us. It's actually always a really good check point and gives us a lot of belief for what’s coming up."