Tom Pidcock's coach rules out performance concerns surrounding the Olympic champion: "I don't see any issue"

While Tom Pidcock was ruled out of the two races he was looking forward to - the GP Québec and GP Montréal due to a concussion sustained at the Tour of Britain, his coach Kurt Bogaerts is in Canada and downplayed any idea that the Brit has major issues with the team after he publicly criticised performance aspects at his home race.

"We really didn't go into it much. It was the Tour of Britain, with home crowds, you're Olympic Champion, you want to do really well, that day it didn't turn out how it was and the first instant, you're not happy with that," Bogaerts told Cyclingnews when asked how he felt about Pidcock's comments.

The Belgian coach reckons Pidcock's outburst was rather just an overreaction caused by the immediate disappointment of being forced to abandon the home race than a reason for a serious concern. "I think if you see what we've put together the last couple of years, we can't complain. For me, I don't see any issue here."

Persistent rumours keep re-emerging from time to time that the all-rounder could be on his way to multiple teams (most recently the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe), but Bogaerts assures that breaking out of his contract with Ineos is not really on Pidcock's table at the moment: "He has a contract until 2027, there's some things like Tom has a helmet of some different brand and people are talking about that," said Pidcock's coach.

What happened at the Tour of Britain? The 25-year-old Brit was caught up in a crash that wasn't noticed by the TV broadcast and "lightly scratched his helmet".

"We are following the protocol of the UCI so I think he feels better every day so hopefully he can go back to normal training soon," said Bogaerts on that matter.

"The crash is not ideal but the bigger picture is from road Worlds to Lombaria to be really in the game, and I don't think he was far off," said the coach. "It's a lot of races that suit him but the crash is not an ideal scenario, he was really looking forward to these two races [in Canada]. It's key to keep calm in scenarios like that. Now it's about recovering from this injury, doing the right things and getting really in the routine of riding and resting."