Tom Pidcock adds extra mountain bike race to schedule, one week before Tour de France
Pidcock confirms he will race World Cup event in Crans Montana, Switzerland ahead of Olympic title defence
Tom Pidcock will race the Crans Montana round of the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, less than a week before starting the Tour de France in Florence, Italy later this month.
After winning the world title in Glasgow last summer, the reigning Olympic champion has been in fine form on the mountain bike recently. He stormed to yet another victory on the Nové Město XCO World Cup course recently, his fourth win from four straight appearances in the Czech Republic.
Pidcock faces a hectic summer in which he will look to defend his Olympic gold medal that he won in Tokyo. The 24-year-old will head to the games in Paris straight from riding the Tour de France for Ineos Grenadiers.
Pidcock told Cycling Weekly last week that he will ride one final mountain bike race before heading to the Tour.
"I'm also doing Crans Montana, the week before the Tour," he said.
The men's cross-country race at the UCI World Cup event will take place on 23 June, with the Tour starting six days later on 29 June.
"I don't train on my mountain bike as much as I should, but [road and mountain bike] are quite interchangeable," Pidcock said. "Of course now, this time of year, I'm doing longer efforts, in preparation for the Tour, more volume. But they all complement each other."
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
The Brit's bolstered mountain bike calendar comes as he looks to gain momentum towards the Olympics.
After outgunning the likes of Nino Schurter in Nové Město, Pidcock embarked on an epic ride back to Andorra the following morning. The Brit flew into Barcelona El Prat airport before he then rode more than 230km, including more than 4,000 metres of elevation, back home.
Before starting his long ride, Pidcock shared a photo of his Garmin and handlebars on Instagram with the caption "time to ride home" before later sharing another shot of his GPS, complete with his ride data.
"Love a good adventure," the 24-year-old wrote. The Brit said long rides give him a chance to decompress.
"I rode home from Barcelona airport [after Nové Město], it was almost eight hours," he said. "It's sort of a tradition every spring when I've done some mountain bike I always do a long ride after. It's just enjoyable, and an easy way to get in some training."
Pidcock regularly enjoys long-distance rides after securing mountain bike World Cup wins. Back in 2022, he rode more than 190km on his road bike from Germany to the Czech Republic the day after getting his hands in the air at the Albstadt World Cup round.
"You can just go and explore, you know," he said. "On a bike you can visit places that you would never ever go in a car."
The men's cross-country mountain bike race at the Olympics will take place on 29 July at Elancourt Hill near Paris.
Read more about Tom Pidcock's summer schedule in an exclusive interview in Cycling Weekly magazine this Thursday.
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Tom has been writing for Cycling Weekly since 2022 and his news stories, rider interviews and features appear both online and in the magazine.
Since joining the team, he has reported from some of professional cycling's biggest races and events including the Tour de France and the World Championships in Glasgow. He has also covered major races elsewhere across the world. As well as on the ground reporting, Tom writes race reports from the men's and women's WorldTour and focuses on coverage of UK domestic cycling.
-
The land of legends: Riding on Tadej Pogačar's home roads
As part of our New Worlds issue in Travel Month, Chris Marshall Bell travelled to Slovenia to find out why it produces so many WorldTour riders per head of population.
By Chris Marshall-Bell Published
-
SBT GRVL lives! The story of just how close the gravel community came to losing one of its biggest events
Here are all the details on what the revamped event will look like in 2025 as government headwinds continue to push against the event
By Logan Jones-Wilkins Published
-
Ineos Grenadiers have had their worst season ever, and the woes appear not to be over. What’s next for the super-team of a bygone era?
With Tom Pidcock possibly off to Q36.5 and Luke Rowe leaving, the news is not quiet around the British WorldTour squad
By Adam Becket Published
-
'You don't need to be 100% to win the Worlds, it can be a bit of a lottery' - Tom Pidcock gambles for success at World Championships
British rider says that he doesn't think this year will be the year, but anything could happen in Zürich
By Adam Becket Published
-
Remco Evenepoel puts transfer speculation to bed ahead of World Championships road race
'I'll stay where I am' says Double Olympic champion as he confirms he will remain at Soudal Quick-Step next season
By Tom Thewlis Published
-
Tom Pidcock pulls out of Montreal and Quebec GPs with concussion
Brit set to use Canadian double header as final tune up before road World Championships
By Tom Thewlis Published
-
'The future is bright': British Cycling CEO praises homegrown talent at Tour of Britain
Four Brits currently make up the top four in the general classification going into the race's final weekend
By Tom Thewlis Published
-
'You can't sugarcoat it' - Luke Rowe says Ineos Grenadiers are 'underperforming'
British squad's experienced road captain believes his team has been "overtaken" by others
By Tom Davidson Published
-
Steve Cummings replaced by Tom Pidcock's coach in Tour of Britain management team shake-up at Ineos Grenadiers
Cummings was on the provisional start list submitted to the race organiser, but was replaced by Kurt Bogaerts
By Tom Thewlis Published
-