Watch: Cyclocross world champion shows you how to run in road cleats
Junior Paris-Roubaix winner and cyclocross world champion Tom Pidcock makes bike change on cobbles
Walking, let alone running, in road shoes isn’t particularly easy. Road cleats make it difficult and clumsy to clomp around in on even the flattest surfaces. That is for most of us. Tom Pidlock (JLT Condor) is clearly not most of us. The 17-year-old British rider from Leeds who recently signed a contract with the Belgian professional cyclocross team Telenet-Fidea Lions which in 2017 will be coached by now retired ‘cross legend Sven Nys, made it look downright easy during a bike change in the ninth round of the 2017 Tour Series in Britain.
Pidlock, who earlier this year won the junior edition of Paris-Roubaix, was leading the race on the Durham circuit in the North East of England. The courses big obstacle was the cobbled climb on South Street. Rain before the race made the cobbles particularly treacherous.
When he decided to go for a bike change while leading the race solo, Pidlock expertly dismounted his bike then bounded across the cobbles in road cleats before a perfect remount on another road bike. He would go on to win the ninth round solo before the race wrapped up the next day.
When the Tour Series was over, Pidlock’s JTL Condor team was once again on the top step of the podium for the second consecutive year.
Pidlock was not the only cyclocross racer distinguishing himself on the road over the past week. Mathieu Van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) who won the overall and two stages at the Boucles de la Mayenne has also been proving himself in other disciplines. Last weekend he was second only to world and Olympic champion Nino Schurter at the mountain bike World Cup in Lourdes. Earlier in April, he took a sprint win ahead of Philippe Gilbert at the Baloise Belgium Tour which he followed up with his dominance at Boucles de la Mayenne.
It’s no big surprise to see Van der Poel excelling in other disciplines. The 2016 cyclocross world champion won the junior men’s road race at the 2013 road world championships in Florence. Like Pidlock, they two young riders have the talent to excel in multiple disciplines.
