After GC breakthrough at La Vuelta, Tom Pidcock's multi-discipline future in doubt: "Fitting in cyclocross is increasingly complicated”

Tom Pidcock’s emergence as a genuine Grand Tour contender has thrown fresh doubt over his immediate future in cyclocross. The 26-year-old’s Belgian coach, Kurt Bogaerts, has admitted that the demands of his road calendar now leave little space for the discipline that helped launch his career.

Pidcock, who finished third overall at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana earlier this month, underlined a new dimension to his talent in Spain. Long known as a rider for one-day Classics and explosive stage wins, he produced a level of consistency across three weeks that few expected, surviving the high mountains with the best climbers and limiting losses in the time trials. Only Jonas Vingegaard and Joao Almeida finished ahead of him in the general classification, and his podium finish has sparked inevitable comparisons with Geraint Thomas, another Brit who successfully transitioned from one-day and support roles into a Grand Tour leader.

That breakthrough performance has inevitably shifted the conversation around his programme. Instead of pencilling in another winter of mud, Pidcock is now debating whether to narrow his focus and give himself the best possible platform to evolve into a bona fide Grand Tour GC rider. For Q36.5, still chasing World Tour wildcards for 2026, his value as a stage racer has suddenly become indispensable.

“Cross becomes more and more difficult to combine,” Bogaerts explained to Wielerflits. “Tom started racing back in January at the AlUla Tour and will continue until Lombardy. That makes for a very long season. Riders like Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert can finish their seasons earlier, and that gives them time to rest. Tom keeps racing deeper into the year, and then cross becomes increasingly complicated to fit in.”

Pidcock has steadily reduced his cyclo-cross commitments, racing sporadically in 2023–24 before stepping away completely last winter to settle into Q36.5. At the time, he suggested he intended to return to cross the following year, but his trajectory has since shifted.

The Olympic mountain bike champion has long combined multiple disciplines, yet Bogaerts suggests that the road calendar and the rising stakes of stage racing are beginning to dictate Pidcock’s programme. “At a certain point you have to take some rest,” he said.

The 2025 Cyclocross World Championships in Hulst might have offered a target, but Bogaerts doubts even that will be feasible. “You could maybe do a couple of races in January or February, but then you’re missing UCI points, you’d have to start right at the back, and you’re almost guaranteed a poor start. That’s far from ideal.”

Instead, Pidcock has continued to find windows for mountain biking, even if he skipped the Mountain Bike Worlds earlier this month due to his Vuelta participation. Bogaerts believes the discipline will remain part of the puzzle in the lead-up to Los Angeles 2028. “Mountain biking means more to him. It fits more easily within the road season, as long as travel is limited. Towards the next Olympics, that will potentially become a bigger focus again.”

Pidcock’s ability to balance disciplines has been one of his defining features, but with his star rising as a Grand Tour rider, the compromises are becoming starker. A Vuelta podium has propelled him into an entirely new bracket of expectation, and with the demands of three-week racing, it is difficult to imagine a full-scale return to the mud in the immediate future. For now, at least, the question of whether he will line up in Hulst – or anywhere else this cross season – remains unanswered, and perhaps increasingly unlikely.