British three-time Olympic champion sees Tom Pidcock as "the best rider in the world" thanks to his uniquely versatile profile
Cycling
Ed Clancy is Yorkshire's most decorated Olympian to this day with three Olympic gold medals from track. In addition he also won six World championship titles and five European titles. However he is well aware that he may be surpassed by the 25-year-old Tom Pidcock, who's already won the Olympic MTB twice and also aspires to succeed on road in the future. Finally, The rumoured inclusion of cyclocross at the Winter Olympic Games could only improve his chances of another gold medal.
Clancy doesn't hide the fact that he's a huge fan of Pidcock, putting him even above the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar: "Tom is the best rider in the world," he claimed at Yahoo. "Maybe I'm biased as a Yorkshireman, but his bike handling skills, tactical awareness, how he can climb, sprint, he can do Classics, Grand Tours, I think he's the best around."
With victories in Tokyo 2021 and now in Paris, the young all-rounder is already only one triumph shy of Clancy's record. Albeit he's still got some work to do in terms of rainbow jerseys. "Tom is already way more successful than I was. He’s got two Olympic golds and he’s still in his mid-20s. If he wants to pursue that, he could stack up Olympic medals for the next two or three Games."
Clancy believes there's still a lot to achieve on the road. In his opinion, Pidcock's future lies in the one-day races, albeit he definitely doesn't want to lower his chances at a Grand Tour. And at the end of the day, he can always return to Mountain bike. "I don’t think anyone truly knows what his future is. He clearly has a gift for one-day classics so maybe he wants to lean into that. But it would be a shame if he ever left mountain biking behind as he’s so good at it. I like when people do multi-disciplines, I really do – even if he does replace me as Yorkshire’s greatest Olympian."
Read also
Not sure which planet Clancy's from. Pidcock and Pogi are same age. Road Results? Pog vs Pid GT GC wins: 4-0 GT stage wins: 26-1 Monuments: 6-0 Week-long stage race GC: 12-0 Other WT Classics: 5-3 There's no race, regardless of terrain, if both actually targeted them where Pogi wouldn't blitz past Pidcock. Pidcock has a few good MTB results, but I doubt if Pogi was in any of them. Sorry, maybe I'm biased, but Clancy is definitely too.
“Only” four GT wins for Pogi plus 3 podiums. Not that this correction changes the conclusion 😀😀
Don't compare it with cycling. Mountain bike has no good riders to put him in difficulty. Please don't put him in the class of Pogi nor MVdP. He is very far of them. Even Carlos Rodriguez not on his level.
The fact that Tom seems a level above doesn’t mean MTB “has no good riders”. We wouldn’t say “road racing has no good climbers” just because no one puts Pogi in difficulty.
Absolutely! Only it makes for better discussion if it’s grounded in reality.
Taking into account MB, CC and road he probably is close to the best but road is by far his weakest area. He is good on the road but their is a gap between him and MVP. Pog and Jonas.. If Piddcock puts his focus on the road for 2025 he could move a lot closer to the top. He is only just 25 after all.
Go on why he is the most versatile rider . Go on hater tell me why ??
There's no talk about multi discipline versatility at all. Clancy said "the best" and named road racing qualities. His bike handling is amazing but he's far from the best because of his lacking everywhere else
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025
- Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.HoopoeChai07-04-2025
- The other issue is that Mad Petersen and Wout would have let MVDP do most of the work, as he kept showing he was stronger. MVDP did the strategy with the highest likelihood of victory, he just wasn't strong enough.acem8207-04-2025
- Crash did not help, Out of position for first attack did not help, illness did not help, pacing was not the best either. MVDP has never raced to his limits against other riders but this is his characteristics when he cracks, he cracks big time just like his first elite men WC RR. Against Pogi he needed to be optimized and he is notabstractengineer07-04-2025
- Yes, I completely agree! Before going to a doctor, I give my immune system time to react. If a reasonable amount of time passes and I'm not cured, then I go to the doctor. Fortunately, I haven't needed a doctor in years!
maria2024202407-04-2025 - A lot of medicine does nothing more than speed up recovery time 4-5 days instead of 7-8, 10-12 instead of 2 weeks. It is questionable if it’s really a good thing for healthy people to rely on it as it also makes your immune system lazy and less responsive next time round, making you more and more reliant on medication (surprise, surprise). A bit like glasses, the less you succumb to adapting their strength, the slower the deterioration. Unfortunately many bacterial infections are not so easy to fight without help, your body should manage in the end but it can take really long, I once had strong fever for 3 months trying to fight an infection without reducing work or lifestyle (the antibiotics at the beginning didn’t help).Mistermaumau07-04-2025
- In this case, maybe is my fault (my ignorance). Fortunately, my family hasn't been sick for many, many years, so I can't say if doctors in Italy are still old-fashioned. When we catch a cold (very mild, nothing that requires medical attention), we recover completely in about a week. This may have reinforced my belief in the 7-day cure. Thank you so much, MisterMmaria2024202407-04-2025
- I appreciate the No Excuses thing...bobo07-04-2025