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Tom Pidcock confirms he’s back on mountain bikes for Albstadt

After a spring on the road, the Olympic champ returns to World Cup racing

2021 XCO WORLD CUP ALBSTADT Tom Pidcock Photo by: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

Olympic champion Tom Pidcock is preparing to make his return to mountain biking. The Ineos racer confirmed he will step away from road racing for a few weeks to race a series of World Cup XCO events.

Pidcock’s return to World Cup racing starts this weekend in Albstadt, Germany. It’s the same venue where he turned heads with his elite World Cup debut last year, storming through the field from the back row to the front of the race. That ride was derailed by a flat tire. But, one week later, Pidcock shocked the field with a solo win in Nove Mesto over an elite field including Mathieu van der Poel and Nino Schurter.

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Pidcock will race back-to-back XCO World Cup weekends in Albstadt and Nove Mesto. From there, the Olympic champion and cyclocross world champion will likely return to road racing for Grand Tour season.

Pidcock is the latest sensation in a generation of men that refuses to stick to a single race discipline. Wout van Aert continues to mix road and cyclocross. Mathieu van der Poel set the stage for Pidcock’s trifecta, racing cyclocross, road and mountain bike events. After his flurry of early successes, including winning the Tokyo Olympics mountain bike cross country race last summer, Pidcock has hinted at ambitions to win world championships in all three disciplines this year.

If Pidcock does pull off the hat trick, it would put him in the company of the great female riders, like Pauline Ferrand Prevot, who raced successfully across disciplines for years.