Tom Pidcock enjoyed his 25th birthday on Tuesday as a two-time mountain bike Olympic champion, but he will soon begin to prepare for Saturday’s men’s road race, knowing that he has a shot at a second gold medal.
Pidcock was physically and mentally tired after winning on Monday afternoon and so 24 hours of family time will help him reset.
“Normally after a mountain bike race, I do a long ride. But this time I’ll take time to recover, to refresh and go from there,” Pidcock said of his recovery plans.
“I want to spend time with my family because I get to see them so very little in the year and I see this is a special time.”
Pidcock will begin to focus on the road race on Wednesday, with a training ride, probably with Josh Tarling, who has stayed in Paris after the time trial. The 18km city centre finishing circuit will be closed to traffic on Thursday afternoon for a final reconnaissance ride and then Pidcock and the rest of the 90-rider men’s field will begin to taper for Saturday.
"It is crucial how he will digest the next two days,” his coach Kurt Bogaerts told Sporza.
“Everything that comes now is a nice extra. The road race course is not ideal for him but he can compete for a medal.”
Pidcock had a number of Olympic obligations as a medal winner on Wednesday, but he was given the day off from training by the Great Britain Performance Director Stephen Parks.
“Tom has to enjoy the moment. He was massively focused on this race and it emotionally, and physically, takes a lot out of you,” Park said.
“Being the consummate professional he is, he'll be right back on it. He's already on the post-race recovery protocol. I’m sure he'll be in a good spot.”
Pidcock was a favourite for the mountain bike race. He will be a contender for the road race but faces some of the best Classic riders in the world including Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Biniam Girmay (Eritrea) and Julian Alaphilippe (France).
Pidcock has won Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold Race, as well as impressing in other Classics. He will lead the Great Britain team in the 272km road race, with Josh Tarling, Stevie Williams and Fred Wright also in the four-rider line-up.
Winning gold in the mountain bike race and the way he won, diving past France’s Victor Koretzky on the last lap after fighting back from a puncture, was intense but inspiring.
“I think winning will give him a huge amount of confidence for the road race,” Parks suggested.
“There's no doubt that we need to ride well as a team, and everyone else will be motivated. Tom’s got the legs, and he's up for the race, so they'll be keen to ride for him. So it should be a fantastic race.”
Double gold is possible for Pidock and Great Britain but Parks knows the road race will be far more unpredictable and uncontrollable.
“It's possible,” Parks said. “But I think if there was one event in cycling, I wouldn't put a wager on it’s the road race. Because it’s such a tough race. It's normally a war of attrition and if the entire peloton rides against you, then it's incredibly difficult to win.
“But it is possible. We'll just have to see how it plays out, but we'll definitely be in the running.”
