There have been some incredible success stories in British cycling over the last two decades. Countless Olympic golds won on track and road, six Tour de France victories in seven years, monuments, one-day classics. But it remains a curious fact that in the 100-plus-year history of the cycling road world championships, only two British men have been crowned world champion.
Tom Simpson (1965) and Mark Cavendish (2011) remain the only British males who have been permitted to don the rainbow jersey in road races the following year.
The hope is that this year could produce a third. Tom Pidcock reckons he has the “best opportunity of his career” in Montréal on Sunday. With Slovenia’s all-conquering Tadej Pogacar out injured, Pidcock says the field this year is wide open. Telegraph Sport analyses the Yorkshireman’s chances.
Absence of Pogacar
Pogacar’s crash at the recent Vuelta a España – which he had been leading by a country mile – has altered the state of play heading into this year’s worlds. The Slovenian would be a strong favourite on almost any course you could conceive of, other than a pan-flat bunch sprint. But this year’s Montréal parcours would certainly have been right in his wheelhouse.
Asked whether it changed his tactics for the race, Pidcock was clear. “One hundred per cent,” he said. “I wouldn’t know who to bet on now. If Tadej was racing I would have bet on him.
“It’s the best opportunity in my career, that’s for sure. But having said that, the depth [of the field] is so deep. It’s quite an open race.”
Montreal course
Speaking of the course, if Pidcock could have designed a course to suit him, it would not look much different from this one. At 273.7km – which will take the riders more than six hours – it consists of a flat loop of more than 110km, followed by 12 laps of the 13.4km Mount Royal circuit, the same one used at the GP Montréal a fortnight ago.
Crucially, the three climbs on that circuit – the Voie Camillien-Houde (1.6km at 7.7 per cent), the Côte de la Polytechnique (800m at four per cent) and the Côte Pagnuelo (500m at 7.5 per cent) – are tough enough to drop the big sprinters, but are not long enough for the best climbers in the world to make a big difference. Perfect for a puncheur like Pidcock, who has won one-day races such as Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold in the past. “It definitely suits me,” Pidcock said. “Three-and-a-half-minutes I think is the KOM [King of the Mountain] for men.”
Preparation
A recent bee sting aside – “It flew straight into the end of my finger and left its sting in me,” Pidcock told us this week – the Leeds-born rider is happy with how his preparations have gone.
He won the recent GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano, then finished sixth at the GP de Montréal on September 13. He then flew to Boulder, Colorado, where he has been training at altitude. “I’m feeling really good actually,” he said. “I’ve felt really good these last few weeks; training at altitude, being at altitude. I did some VO2 efforts at 2,500m for the first time ever. And I actually managed to do them so that must be quite a good thing! But one-day races you can get wrong, even if you feel good going into them.”
Seixas and Del Toro
Asked to nominate his favourites for the race, Pidcock plumped for Mexico’s Isaac del Toro and French prodigy Paul Seixas, who finished first and second at the recent GP de Montréal.
France and Belgium will look to control, he predicted. But he added that he felt there might be too much climbing for heavyweights such as Wout van Aert (Belgium) and Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands). The latter has already said he thinks his chances are “slim”.
“He’s not a guy who bullsh—,” Pidcock said. “If it suits him he says. And if it doesn’t he also says. But for sure he’s not going to come all the way here not to try. So he will be to the front, I just don’t know how far to the front. [But] the amount of climbing… you can’t hide from that. It’s not their perfect course but they’ll still do well, I have no doubt about that.”
What about the other contenders? “I think Remco [Evenepoel, also Belgium] will for sure be good. He can keep going. But Seixas and Del Toro are the two guys who can make the difference on the climb over the rest of us.”
Pidcock did add, though, that the fact the race only featured 12 laps of the finish circuit as opposed to the 16 raced at the recent GP de Montréal was also in his favour. “Sixteen was a lot and made it really hard, but not in a way that makes the racing better. I think more people will have more explosivity in the final with 12 laps.”
As a two-time Olympic mountain-bike champion, a former cyclocross world champion and a winner of major one-off races such as the Alpe d’Huez stage of the 2022 Tour de France, the 27-year-old Pidcock tends to rise to the big occasion.
‘Growing into leadership’
Another interesting thing Pidcock said in his chat with the media this week was that the move from Ineos to Pinarello Q36.5 had forced him to become a better leader. “It’s definitely something that I’ve grown into because before when I was Ineos, even when I was leader, I always struggled to ask for what I wanted because there were so many big names and experienced riders. I guess now, coming to this team, I’ve felt a bit more, almost, obligated, to lead. And I understood that people were there to support me.”
… or maybe we should be looking at Adam Yates?
It is absolutely worth noting that Adam Yates – who co-leads the GB team with Pidcock – has the best chance of his career as well. The 34-year-old is a little longer in the tooth than Pidcock, but the course suits him as well. Yates is a former winner of GP de Montréal (2023) and as a key lieutenant of Pogacar at UAE Team Emirates, he is accustomed to winning. In fact, UAE have won the past five editions of GP de Montréal.
Zoe Bäckstedt, meanwhile, is part of a GB squad who look to have their work cut out in the elite women’s road race on Saturday. The reigning GB road race champion has Pfeiffer Georgi, Josie Nelson and Lauren Dickson alongside her, as well as Olympic time-trial silver medallist Anna Henderson and Flora Perkins. Demi Vollering (Netherlands) is having a remarkable season and is odds on favourite.
