Rider Chat: Tom Pidcock (Team Wiggins)

Double world champion as a Junior and World Cup winner as an under 23 in cross, Tom Pidcock is looking forward to spending the road season mainly in England

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Rider Chat: Tom Pidcock (Team Wiggins)
He is one of the most talked about riders in cycling these days which puts a lot of pressure on his young shoulders and for the road season, Tom Pidcock is looking to stay close to home in Leeds and spend his road racing months mainly in Britain.

Tom has one more race to do this cyclo-cross season on Sunday, before taking a well earned break and then preparing for his road season which he is looking to start at the end of April. At the presentation of his team in London on Tuesday, we managed to get a few minutes with a rider that has won World titles as a junior and is also the British Elite Circuit Race Champion which he won in Sheffield in 2017.

During the Q&A at the Team Wiggins presentation, Sir Bradley was asked what advice would you give Tom, Wiggo replied “He has obviously got it, whatever ‘it’ is’. The first time I saw him was at one of the Tour Series events (Durham) on tele and he just decimated the field.”

In cyclo-cross, Tom has already had a taste of riding for a big team in that sport and of that he says “it was my first proper team I have been part of so it was never going to be easy but for the first season, I’m pretty pleased”.
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Tom however is less pleased with the cyclo-cross season and that is mainly down to one race – the worlds where he had an off day and the success didn’t come that many expected of him. “I didn’t expect to be as successful as I was as a junior but almost as successful” he told me.

“I knew the level would be harder. As a junior, I was pretty strong compared to everyone else so I knew it would be good racing in the Under 23s. It didn’t go as well as I planned though mainly because of the performance at the worlds and there are some things I need to change for next season …”

When I put it to him there are some who have questioned, simply because of their affection for Tom as a rider and his success, that he should have been in a WorldTour team to which Tom admits at his age that would not be sensible and he’s happy with a team which will look after him and not put pressure on him.

So what is Tom looking forward to this year on the road. “I want to spend most of my time in England, doing crits and enjoying them” he says. But the one race he really wants to be part of is the Tour of Yorkshire. “That would be the race I would be looking forward to most this year. From what I have seen as a spectator of the race, riding that would be pretty special.”

It would indeed and we can only cross our fingers and hope that ASO select Team Wiggins this year (they didn’t last year) and give that very special Yorkshireman a chance to shine in front of his home fans … thanks to Tom for his time…

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