Pidcock focuses more on time trial and, surprisingly, only MTB World Championships. Tour role still unknown

Pidcock started the year with a stage win in the Tour of the Algarve before finishing fifth in the Omloop and winning the Strade Bianche after a long solo. He had two crashes in the Tirreno-Adriatico, which led to him missing Milan-Sanremo due to a suspected concussion. He returned to racing in Dwars door Vlaanderen, hit his own limits in the Tour of Flanders but then finished third in the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Just a week after Liège, we already saw Pidcock back on the mountain bike, although he didn't finish the World Cup race in Guéret due to mechanical issues. He then showed his adaptability to a different bike and terrain by winning both the World Cup races in Chur, Switzerland and Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. These victories earned him valuable points toward the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where he will defend his Olympic title from Tokyo 2021.

However, first, the still only 23-year-old British cyclist has some goals to achieve. On Sunday, he will start in the Tour of Switzerland with INEOS Grenadiers, alongside general classification rider Ben Tulett and strong time trialists Michal Kwiatkowski, Magnus Sheffield, Connor Swift, Jhonatan Narváez and Kim Heiduk. After Switzerland, the Tour de France is on the schedule. This will be Pidcock's second time participating, after finishing 16th overall last year and winning the stage to Alpe d'Huez.

According to his coach Kurt Bogaerts, we won't immediately see the best version of Pidcock in Switzerland. "Tom had a good three-week training block in Tenerife. We used it to build the foundation and refresh the fundamentals. The truly intensive work needs to happen in Switzerland itself. Tom will have to grow there. He is good now, but he is not yet a hundred percent at his best," he told Het Nieuwsblad.

Nevertheless, Pidcock has ambitions in Switzerland, and surprisingly, they are not limited to the mountains. "Tom was a junior world champion in time trialing, but he hasn't worked on it much in recent years. Now, we are making it a priority again. He has completed several training sessions on the time trial bike during his altitude training, and we are trying to support him as much as possible with a good team. Tom has an especially good connection with performance coach Dan Bigham," said Bogaerts. "The time trials in the Algarve and Tirreno-Adriatico were good indicators to see where we stand. In Switzerland, we hope to see some progress."

After Switzerland, the Tour follows, where Pidcock will essentially have a free role, just like last year. "But it's too early to talk about that now. We have to wait for the selection. We have a wide range of options. We need to assess the team composition for the Tour and the role Tom can play," says Bogaerts, who will immediately switch back to mountain biking after the Tour. "Mountain biking is something Tom really enjoys. It gives him a lot of mental energy. Together with Pinarello, he had the opportunity to design his own mountain bike, following the design of his own cyclocross bike. It is an enrichment to him as a person as well."

It should come as no surprise that Pidcock will be participating in the MTB World Championships in Glasgow in August. A bigger surprise is that we normally won't see him on the road in Scotland. "At the moment, the plan is for Tom to only compete in the MTB World Championships there. But that decision is not final. Much will depend on how he performs in the Tour."