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Ineos off-road? Tom Pidcock shares mountain bike testing

U23 world champion announces elite World Cup ambitions for 2021

2020 UCI mountain bike world championships Leogang Austria Pidcock Photo by: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool

When Tom Pidcock announced he’d joined Ineos Grenadiers, the high-budget World Tour road team, it looked like that might be the end of his off-road ambitions.

Then the British rider won an under-23 World Cup, under-23 world championships and, just for fun, eMTB world championships. All in less than two weeks.

While Pidcock can’t wear his u23 rainbow stripes in the elite races this year, it now looks like he will be contesting a limited cross country mountain bike calendar.

Oh, and the Olympics.

Much like Mathieu van der Poel before him, the Ineos rider isn’t sticking within the confines of a single discipline. He raced cyclocross over the winter. He’s already nabbed his first elite World Tour podium, at Kuurn-Brussels-Kuurn. And now he’ll be representing the Grenadiers side of “Ineos Grenadiers” with more off-road racing.

Pidcock’s calendar starts May 1 with the Swiss Bike Cup round in Leukerbad, where he’ll chase UCI points. Then three World Cup XCO rounds, in Albstadt, Nove Mesto and Leogang. Finally, Pidcock is aiming for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic mountain bike race.

It’s a busy first year in elite for the Ineos rider. Especially since he’ll be mixing that in with his team responsibilities on the road. Not much seems to slow Pidcock down so far, though. So it will be interesting to see how he manages the mixed racing calendar.

Tom Pidcock – MTB Testing