Tom Pidcock hints cyclocross return may never happen as Olympic hopes fade

Tom Pidcock will not race cyclocross this winter, extending an absence from the discipline that dates back to January 2024.

The 27-year-old confirmed his plans to Wielerflits ahead of the Canadian WorldTour races, saying another return to the mud no longer fits easily alongside his road and mountain bike ambitions.

“I don’t think I’ll race cyclocross this winter,” Pidcock said. “At the end of the 2025 road season, I thought it would be nice to race cross again. But when I had finished my last road race, I was like, ‘Nah, maybe not.’ It is just too much.”

Pidcock last raced cyclocross at the Benidorm World Cup in January 2024. His most recent victory came a month earlier in Namur.

His latest comments also cast fresh doubt over whether a comeback will happen at all.

Earlier this year, Pinarello-Q36.5 Head of Performance Kurt Bogaerts said a return remained a realistic possibility, although he stressed that Pidcock would only be interested if he could immediately race for victories.

Pidcock is now considerably less certain. Asked whether he could have already ridden his final cyclocross race, the former world champion refused to rule it out.

“I’m not going to say no to that,” he said.

Instead, Pidcock pointed to Olympic inclusion as one factor that could persuade him to return.

“At the moment it doesn’t look good for cyclocross at the Olympic Games, does it?” he said. “That personally doesn’t help me make a return. If cyclocross gets a place at the Games, then I think I will race cross again.”

That possibility is some way off. Cyclocross will not feature at the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps, with the IOC deciding against adding sports not contested on snow or ice to the programme.

The earliest possible opening would therefore be the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, although there is no guarantee that cyclocross will be included there either.

For Pidcock, it adds another layer of uncertainty to a cyclocross career that has already been placed on hold for more than two years.

The Briton grew up racing the discipline and collected world titles as a junior, under-23 and elite rider, completing the set with victory in Fayetteville in 2022.

He has since increasingly focused on road and mountain bike racing, leaving little space for a winter programme that once formed a regular part of his season.

Across his career, Pidcock has collected 45 cyclocross victories from close to 150 appearances, while sharing some of the sport’s biggest stages with Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert.

For now, that record will remain frozen for at least another winter.