Tom Pidcock under fire from cyclocross World Championships organizer after absence reveal: "I find it incomprehensible"
CyclocrossSaturday, 21 January 2023 at 11:33
Tom Pidcock has decided to forego his title defense at the cyclocross World Championships, however that decision has not come too well for the organizers.
Jan Prop, chairman of the organization, told BN/De Stem: "After the cross in Zonhoven there was a peak in ticket sales. It's gone now. We will see. I find it incomprehensible that Tom Pidcock is not participating. After all, he is the defending champion"
The course in Hoogerheide will favour the powerhouse riders and Pidcock, who won in Fayetteville last year, has decided to not attempt to defend his title against the likes of Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel who have been dominating the field over the last few months.
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- I agree, the big GC guys are there, but looking at the list, it seems a bit few teams with real GC ambitions. Or is it normal, half of the team are only there for stagesRide197402-07-2025
- Win all of the first 10 stages? Or does he mean that the profile of all of those 10 stages are suited for a win by Wout? If they mean winning 10 stages, they're banking on MVDP, Milan, and a few others to crash out on stage one. Maybe something was lost in translation.Ride197402-07-2025
- The problem is that grand tours are not always won by the best riders. In the 2025 Giro d'italia, Carapaz was the strongest rider - but Simon Yates and Del Toro had really good days on Stages 20 and 9 respectively, so they both finished ahead of him
Llywelynglyndwr02-07-2025 - God what an a hole - why does this site insist on giving a platform to these pundits who have never won a race ?Crashjames02-07-2025
- Jonas admires Tadej, he has said repeatedly he is fascinated watching him racing the classics. Normal, any intellectually honest person admire such a generational talent who's been astounding the world with his incredible versatility since he was 18-19 y.o.
maria2024202402-07-2025 - Agreed. It's a shame to watch such a talented and versatile rider spending ... 90% ?... of his resources being a domestique. FREE WOUT!!! ahahah.maria2024202402-07-2025
- Surprised there's no De Plus.joebloggs02-07-2025
- As with all interviews, it’s a bit stilted (especially in translation,” but also gracious to Pogacar, which is nice to see. Rivals do t have to be enemies, after all. I do wonder what they were laughing about at the Dauphine, who knows.RidesHills02-07-2025
- Dirty Danes..
Front24202-07-2025 - zonneveld completely nails it here: THE great gap in mvdp’s palmares is TDF performance, and i’m completely stoked to think that mathieu finally seems to genuinely care about addressing that.OCexile02-07-2025
You make a course the guy can't win and the guy doesn't go. Why is this shocking?
The course is not particularly relevant. Pidcock has never won a race in which both MVDP and Wout were present. This year I think he has only finished ahead of either of them once. He's really good, but like everyone else, he is just not on their level.
The person who should be concerned about the course itself is Wout. It favors Van Der Poel in every way -- lots of slippery, technical features, almost no mud or running. Van Der Poel has won on this course multiple times, but so far as I can tell Wout never has. If MVDP's back is good, it is entirely his race to lose.