I don’t really watch road races. I don’t really watch ‘cross, to be honest. But I watch every mountain bike race and every downhill World Cup: Pidcock confirms his 2024 goals in this interview

Tom Pidcock made some juicy headlines in his interview on Red Bull's Just Ride podcast. The British rider explained that next season he intends to ride both the Tour and the Olympic Games in XCO and road racing, although he left a few question marks on the calendar. He also opted for MTB when asked about his favourite discipline.

Tom Pidcock clears up some questions: 2024 calendar, cycling preferences and future goals

Tom Pidcock belongs to a small group of people who are blessed with an almost superhuman ability to pedal. The British rider is even more special than most of the world's superclass riders because he is able to rub shoulders with the best in the sport's three major disciplines. A gem of a man who comes along very occasionally and who still has most of his career ahead of him.

The Renaissance Rider - for his versatility on different terrains - conquered the asphalt at the Alpe d'Huez in the 2022 Tour, the mud with the CX World Championship in 2022 and the mountains with the gold at the 2021 Olympic Games and the 2023 XCO World Championships.

After scoring a win at Mont Sainte-Anne, his final race this season, Pidcock sat down to talk to Rob Warner and Eliot Jackson on 'Just Ride', a Red Bull podcast.

The tight 2024 calendar

Tom Pidcock will face the coming season with the excitement of a packed calendar. Doubts as to whether all of these commitments will push the British rider beyond his limits are still hanging over the air. The rider confirms that his number one objective will be the Olympic Games in Paris - in principle to compete in the road and mountain events - although he admits that he will have to focus on the Tour first.

The Tour de France will come to a close in Nice on July 21, just a week before Pidcock takes to the start line of the XCO Olympic Games on July 29, where he will be looking to defend his gold medal. A few days later, on August 3, he is scheduled to take part in the Olympic road race.

“Next year I want to defend my title at the Olympics, but I have to balance that with the team,” Pidcock said. “They need me and want me at the Tour. I have eight days between the end of the Tour and the Olympics.”

“It’s going to be on the limit,” Pidcock said. “It’s not going to be easy, but I am giving myself the best chances.”

“Doing these races at the end of this year means I don’t have to do the spring races in mountain bike, and I can go into the Tour a bit fresher,” Pidcock said.

As for cyclo-cross, he acknowledged that he would also race on a limited calendar, but did not say whether he would be present at the World Championships in Tabor.

Future plans: to continue racing in all three categories

Pidcock said he intends to continue competing in road, cyclocross and cross country. The British rider explains that changing categories helps him to maintain good mental health.

“If I was just on the road, racing all season, and doing altitude camps, yeah, you’d get the best out of me for a few months, but I’d get sick of it, and I’d need to try something else,” Pidcock said.

“That’s why I drop into mountain biking. When you’re fit, it doesn’t feel bad, but when you’re suffering, you cannot help yourself that much in training. I need different stuff to do.”

Plucking the daisy: MTB, road or cyclo-cross?

Beyond that, however, the interviewers faced Pidcock with the dilemma of choosing just one of the three disciplines. The Brit replied that faced with such a choice he would choose MTB. “Just based on what I enjoy? Mountain bike, probably,” Pidcock said.

The Rider explained: “I don’t really watch road races. I don’t really watch ‘cross, to be honest. But I watch every mountain bike race and every downhill World Cup.”

On the other hand, he explained that for him cilocross is the most difficult of the three disciplines to race.

The past, the present and the future of the Tour

Pidcock also talked about his participation in the 2023 Tour de France, a second year in the Gallic round was below what he showed in his debut.

“I had too many goals at this year’s Tour,” Pidcock said. “It had some great results, and it also had a fair share of it not going how I wanted it. At the Tour, I was aiming for the GC, winning a stage, and I came away with nothing."

“I learned a lot, but it wasn’t very enjoyable,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I got anything out of it.”

As for his future appearances in the world's biggest race, Pidcock wants to take the yellow jersey although he acknowledges that he is still a long way behind the main favourites. Asked if he sees himself winning, he replied “I don’t know, to be honest. Time will tell.”

“I am very good at peaking for big events,” he said. “Of course, I want to try to win the Tour de France someday. This will be the big job for me. The patience side of it is quite difficult.

The INEOS rider delved into the latter, which he considers to be a weak point: “I am kind of impatient. When it’s a flat stage, I say, come on, let’s race, but that’s when you need to be patient and just sit-in. That’s something I need to get better at.”