Tom Pidcock's Tour de France warm-up plans shifted, no Tour de Suisse after contracting viral infection
No update from Pinarello Q36.5 on Briton's Tour de France plans
Tom Pidcock will not start the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday after missing training days due to a mild viral infection.
The Briton was due to lead Pinarello Q36.5 at the five-stage race as part of his preparation for the Tour de France, which begins in less than three weeks.
Instead, and "health permitting", Pidcock will compete in the one-day Andorra MoraBanc Classica on 21 June, his team said in a statement.
"Following a small number of missed training days at the teams altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada due to contracting a mild viral infection, the Pinarello Q 36.5 Pro Cycling Team has decided to amend Tom Pidcock’s June race programme to allow for additional recovery and training time," the team said.
"As such the Tour of Switzerland has been removed from his race calendar to be replaced, health permitting, by the Andorra MoraBanc Classica on 21 June.
"While disappointed to miss the Team's home race, Tom has returned home to Andorra where he will continue to train and is now very much looking forward to competing on his adopted home roads around the mountains of Andorra.
"Further updates will be provided in due course."
The team made no mention of changes to Pidcock's plans for the Tour de France, where he is still expected to compete.
The 26-year-old last competed at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Nové Město, Czech Republic, on 24 May. The Olympic champion won the cross-country event, and finished second in the short track the same day. He hasn't competed on the road since he placed second at Eschborn-Frankfurt on 1 May.
Earlier this month, Pidcock travelled to Sierra Nevada, Spain, for a pre-Tour training camp with his Pinarello Q36.5 team-mates.
He has said he will not target the general classification at this year's race, despite finishing third at the Vuelta a España last September.
“This year I’m not going with any expectations,” he said on the Fredono Going Mental podcast. “I want to race, and I want to have fun, and the rest will come. If I’m not saying, ‘Ok, I want to win a stage, I want to podium, I want to be top five,’ or whatever it is, then there is nothing to fail at.”
The Tour de France begins on 4 July with a team time trial in Barcelona, Spain.
