Tom Pidcock will compete in ten cyclocross races this winter. This is according to the programme published by his team Ineos Grenadiers. The 24-year-old will start the 2023/24 season in Herentals, Belgium, on 16 December.
Six races await Pidcock before the end of the year. Five of these will take place in Belgium, with the Ineos Grenadiers rider travelling to Hulst in the Netherlands on New Year's Eve. His programme is rounded off by four races in January. His cyclocross campaign will conclude with the World Cup race in Benidorm, Spain, on 21 January.
Tom Pidcock's cyclocross racing programme
- 16/12/2023 X2O Trofee Herentals (Belgium)
- 17.12.2023 World Cup Namur (Belgium)
- 23.12.2023 World Cup Antwerp (Belgium)
- 26.12.2023 World Cup Gavere (Belgium)
- 28.12.2023 Superprestige Diegem (Belgium)
- 30.12.2023 World Cup Hulst (Netherlands)
- 04/01/2024 X2O Koksijde (Belgium)
- 06.01.2024 Superprestige Gullegem (Belgium)
- 07.01.2024 World Cup Zonhoven (Belgium)
- 21.01.2024 World Cup Benidorm (Spain)
This means that up to six thrilling battles in the 2023/24 cyclocross season between Pidcock, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert possible - the three all-rounders in cycling. Van Aert has so far left his participation in the events in Zonhoven and Benidorm open, while van der Poel has them firmly on his calendar.
Cyclocross 2023/24: van der Poel, van Aert & Pidcock compete against each other here
- 23.12.2023 World Cup Antwerp (Belgium)
- 26.12.2023 World Cup Gavere (Belgium)
- 30.12.2023 World Cup Hulst (Netherlands)
- 04/01/2024 X2O Koksijde (Belgium)
- 07.01.2024 World Cup Zonhoven (Belgium) - optional with van Aert
- 21.01.2024 World Cup Benidorm (Spain) - optional with van Aert
No Cyclocross World Championship for Tom Pidcock
With the Cyclocross World Championship Tom Pidcock will most likely miss the highlight of the cyclocross season. It will take place on 4 February in Tabor, Czech Republic. Pidcock was already world champion in this discipline in 2022.
Tom Pidcock 2023 winner at Strade Bianche
The 2023 season was a successful one for Tom Pidcock. In addition to his World Championship title on the mountain bike in cross country at the World Cycling Championships in Scotland, the multi-talented rider also excelled on the road. Pidcock closed the Tour de France 2023 in a solid 13th place and showed what he was made of, especially in the first half of the tour. He also made his mark in the spring classics: In the Strade Bianche he took his first victory in a one-day race of the UCI World Tour. At the cycling monument Liège-Bastogne-Liège he also crossed the finish line in second place - he only had to Remco Evenepoel admit defeat. In 2024, Pidcock wants to combine the Tour de France and the Olympics in Paris.
Will Tom Pidcock defend his Olympic gold medal?
Although the Briton is also aiming to take part in the road race there, his focus is more likely to be on mountain biking. The man from Leeds already won the cross-country Olympic title in Tokyo in 2021. "Next year I want to defend my title at the Olympic Games, but to do that I need as many points as possible," said Pidcock on the Red Bull podcast Just Ride in October.
Although Pidcock is already qualified thanks to his world championship title, the points he has collected are decisive for the starting order in cross country at the 2024 Olympics, which is why road cycling stars such as Pidcock and van der Poel are competing in various mountain bike competitions in the run-up to the Olympics.
