He is always good for headlines due to unusual actions: Now Tom Pidcock is attempting a mega workout at the end of the season. According to his team Q36.5, he will be at the start of both the Tour of Lombardy next Saturday (11.10.25) and the Gravel World Championships the following day. Two race starts within 24 hours including a change of discipline from road to gravel - Pidcock likes it varied (here in the TOUR interview) and obviously also gruelling. The Tour of Lombardy is regarded as the most demanding road race on the calendar due to the metres in altitude. There, the Olympic mountain bike champion is one of the extended favourites (see preview).
Tom Pidcock at the start of the 2025 Gravel World Championships
After 4,500 metres of climbing that ends in Bergamo, a long transfer to the Netherlands awaits the 26-year-old Brit, where the fourth edition of the Gravel World Championships will take place near Maastricht and the German border. There, on Sunday (12.10.) from 11:45 a.m., he will compete with previous gravel world champions such as Gianni Vermeersch and Matej Mohoric, Olympic road champion Greg van Avermaet and former Tour de France runner-up Romain Bardet on a 180-kilometre course with wider tyres.
Whether he still has enough strength in his legs remains to be seen. After all, Pidcock could achieve the feat of becoming the first professional cyclist to become world champion in cyclocross, mountain biking and gravel. He won the first two titles in 2022 and 2023, but the Q36.5 press department did not say exactly how he would manage the long transfer. Covering the distance of 700 kilometres as the crow flies between Bergamo and Maastricht by bike is not something even Pidcock would seriously consider.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
