Wrong Pidcock signed up for Tre Valli Varesine - 'There was some chaos on the bus'

“It was a mistake,” Pidcock laughed before the race. “There was a bit of chaos in the bus this morning when they found out it was my brother’s name. But I texted him, he’s in Japan, so it would’ve been difficult for him to make the start.”

The Olympic mountain bike champion lined up in Varese just days after his strong second place at the Giro dell’Emilia, hoping to carry that form into another late-season test. Against a stacked field led by Tadej Pogačar, he animated parts of the race but faded in the finale, finishing 40th at two minutes and eight seconds from the Slovenian winner.

After a demanding end to the season that included the Vuelta and the World Championships, Pidcock said he was still feeling the benefits of that hard racing. “I definitely feel better after the Worlds,” he said. “The Vuelta is always difficult to recover from, but the Worlds helped. It was a hard race, and I felt really good on Saturday [Giro dell'Emilia].”

That form will now carry him into the final stretch of his season, with Il Lombardia on Saturday and the Gravel World Championships in Valkenburg the very next day. It’s a typically intense conclusion for a rider who rarely takes the easy route, stretching his campaign from the AlUla Tour in January all the way to mid-October.

Such a relentless schedule leaves little room for cyclocross, a discipline that once defined him but now seems to be slipping away. After skipping the winter of 2024-25, Pidcock looks unlikely to return this year either. “At a certain point you need to rest,” explained his coach Kurt Bogaerts after the Vuelta. “Tom goes on longer than Van der Poel or Van Aert, who both stop earlier and can build in time for cross. For him it becomes harder and harder to fit in.”

Which means no battles from Pidcock with Van der Poel and Van Aert. Unless Q36.5 sends his brother instead.