Tom Pidcock’s coach Kurt Bogaerts has said a busy few weeks are in store for the British rider, with an intense focus on cyclocross being taken with a longer-term view to hitting top form for the Classics.
However, Pidcock and Bogaerts remain undecided about the defence of his cyclocross world title, echoing earlier sentiments in deeming participation there very unlikely while not ruling it out entirely.
“I think this year, the Classics are more important,” Bogaerts told Cyclingnews at Sunday’s Dublin round of the UCI's cyclocross World Cup. “We try to make sure that he goes fresh and with the right shape into the Classics.
“We are planning to do a busy Christmas period, to ride the normal races around Christmas. We are planning to do quite a lot. But then also we will evaluate after every race if we skip one or continue to do the [planned] amount of racing.”
A winner at the Boom round of the Superprestige competition and at the Kortrijk C2 race plus runner-up at the Overijse World Cup, Bogaerts believes Pidcock’s form is on a gradual upward trend, although he said it is difficult to put an exact figure on where things are at the moment. The Ineos Grenadiers rider was third in Dublin on a flat, fast course that didn’t play to his strengths.
Pidcock joked afterwards to reporters that he would like to see a rule introduced preventing the use of sand pits in cross events.
One complication in gauging his current form is that, unlike some of his rivals, he has a big focus on goals after the 'cross season and is working hard throughout this period rather than tapering for events.
“We are doing quite a normal training in the week and not really coming in fresh for races,” Bogaerts explained. “So we see it like as a general block of training with some nice racing in the weekend.”
That bigger-picture focus sees Pidcock join the rest of the Ineos Grenadiers riders this week at a training camp in Mallorca. His teammates have been following a lower-key build-up to the season without competition, building more steadily towards the new year.
“At training camp, especially in December, everyone is doing more steady efforts, doing longer efforts,” the 23-year-old told journalists in Dublin. “It’s not really intense. But actually, those efforts are kind of hard when you are in cross shape because you’re very explosive but not consistent.
“I do a little bit different training, but it’ll be nice to go and see everyone again. I just hope it’s not raining.”
Following the camp, he will return to competition and will continue that intense schedule over Christmas. Given a relatively busy road season this year, with 46 intense days of racing including his first Tour de France, you’d forgive him if he wanted a quieter off-season. But five months on from his Alpe d’Huez stage win, he was the picture of determination in Dublin.
How does he retain this focus year round?
“Well, he grew up with this sport, with the discipline of cyclocross,” Bogaerts explained. “We see some really good riders on the road doing this kind of work in the winter. And in the end, everyone needs to work hard in the winter and this is a different way to make your condition better and to get stronger for your Classic season.
“Matthieu [Van der Poel] does it, Wout [van Aert] does it, although they are different types of riders, more Classics-orientated. Tom has some other skills and some other capabilities that maybe some day he can go for a nice GC.
“But it’s a quite good workout in the winter and keeps you motivated, and he loves the technical part of it. He loves the spectators. He loves many aspects of the sport.”
Setting sights on the Classics
Being world champion satisfied one of Pidcock’s major ambitions. It was the latest big title racked up by the Briton, following on from his double of world and European championship cyclocross wins as a junior, and again as an under 23.
He relishes racing in the rainbow jersey, but his ambitious approach to the sport means he may well pass up the chance to land another gold medal in the discipline.
Asked if he will be present at the Worlds in Hoogerheide in early February, Pidcock raised fresh doubts on Sunday. “Probably not, but not definitely [so],” he said.
Bogaerts echoed this. “I think it’s very unlikely,” he told Cyclingnews. “[But] it’s not a definite decision. The worlds are very late and that then comes closer to the road season where we are planning to do a training block leading into it. So there’s not much time if you want to do a race before Opening Weekend and everything. We didn’t make a decision yet, but let’s see.”
Pidcock went into this year’s Classics with high ambitions but ended up with less than he wanted from his campaign. His best showings were third in Dwars door Vlaanderen, fifth in De Brabantse Pijl and 11th in the Amstel Gold Race, while he was a non-finisher in both Milan-San Remo and La Flèche Wallonne. He crashed in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and rolled in almost 14 minutes back.
What does Bogaerts feel he learned from the campaign that he can utilise next time around?
“I think this year things didn’t work out so well. But he saw that he had a strong team and could fall back on a strong team. He knows when people look at him and mark him that there are other people in the team that can take advantage of it. So in the end, we tried to win with the team.
"And I think he built up some credits within the team, like the win in Amstel with Michał Kwiatkowski and with Magnus Sheffield in Brabançonne. I think it’s a natural progression on a really good first year, where you then go into the second year and you’re a bit more marked. That’s normal.”
The Belgian is hopeful that things will go better this time around. Love of cross aside, that’s why Pidcock is slogging away this winter in races where the courses don’t always play to his strengths.
He is on the back foot in some of the races compared to bigger, more powerful riders, but keeping the bigger picture in mind sustains him in such moments.
“Like I say – and sometimes people get it a little bit out of context – he’s up against it,” said Bogaerts after the Dublin race. “The likes of Van der Poel and a Van Aert have more raw power. But Tom has proven he can beat these guys. And going into battle like today on a course that is not really his particular course, doing that makes him stronger as a rider.
“In many aspects, he did an amazing workout today. That makes him stronger. In the moments of the truth of the Classics, that will make the difference, I think, between winning and losing.”
