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Tom Pidcock began a belated and shortened cyclocross campaign on Saturday, allocating himself just ten events because of a clear season goal.
Stage winner at Alpe d’Huez in 2022 and 13th overall in last year’s Tour de France, he has set his sights firmly on a big ambition in France.
“I want to prove myself in the Tour,” the 24-year-old Briton told Sporza.
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“Last year I didn’t really know what I wanted and what the team wanted. I didn’t have a clear goal and I paid the price for that. I came home with nothing.”
Pidcock is now heading into his fourth season as part of the Ineos Grenadiers squad and is a major part of its push to win another Tour de France. That goal was last achieved back in 2019 and since then the team has floundered in that goal.
The Briton has a contract with the team until the end of 2027 and with the pressure on both externally and also from himself, he wants to make a major impression. As for what that is, he isn’t specific, but he makes clear that stepping up slightly from last year is not what he is interested in.
“This year I want to fully focus on the general classification. Top 10? That’s not really my motivation.
“My goal will become clearer after some stage races earlier in the year. I believe in myself more than last year, but I won’t be able to say specifically what my goal is until later.”
Pidcock rode strongly in Saturday’s X20 Badkamers Trofee Herentals cyclocross race in Belgium, recovering from a poor start where he was only 18th at the end of lap one to scythe through the field and eventually finish second.
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He will start Sunday’s World Cup race in Namur as the probable favourite, and said after Saturday’s event that he hoped it would serve as a good warmup for that race.
Herentals victor Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) will not compete on Sunday.
Pidcock reaffirmed after Saturday’s race that he will definitely miss the world championships on February 4. He went into more detail with Sporza, saying that this time of year is all about getting ready for later.
“I have a lot of big goals in the summer, so I use the winter as preparation,” he said.
“It will be a long summer with the Tour and the Olympic Games. To do a cyclo-cross World Championships so late is difficult.”
“And if I go to the world championships, I want to prepare 100 percent for it out of respect for the event. It is also difficult mentally. Wout van Aert lost last year and said that it was difficult for him during the road season.
“So I want to enjoy the Christmas period and prepare for the road season.”