Pidcock reveals summer plans — and a possible autumn meeting with Mathieu van der Poel

Tom Pidcock's spring is over. The Briton impressed at Milan-San Remo, then a crash in the Tour of Catalonia brought him to a halt. He closed things out with second place at Eschborn-Frankfurt on Friday, and spoke to IDL Pro Cycling about a turbulent few months — and his plans for the summer ahead, on both road and mountain bike.

"Normally this would have been a rest week, but I changed things around a bit," Pidcock said in Frankfurt. "I took some time to do other, enjoyable things — but since I was in Germany anyway, I decided to add this race in."

"We have a UBS event over the coming days and I'll keep riding a bit there, but also get to enjoy some other things. That's needed too, because mentally the injury was much harder than the physical side. Now it's time for a clear headspace — there's a busy summer ahead," said the Pinarello-Q36.5 team leader.

That busy summer begins with the Mountain Bike World Cup in Nové Město, in the weekend of 22–25 May. After that, Pidcock switches back to the road for the Tour de Suisse and then the Tour de France, where he will ride as his team's protected leader.

After the Tour, he returns to the mountain bike. The MTB World Championships in Val di Sole — 26–30 August — is his headline goal. That is also where Mathieu van der Poel will be aiming, having confirmed his intention to target the same race this week.

"That's a title I'd love to add to my palmares, because no one has ever won it across all disciplines," Pidcock told Spanish outlet AS.

Pidcock could also complete a different kind of hat-trick — winning the road World Championships in Montreal on 27 September. In the build-up, he is scheduled to ride the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal on 11 and 13 September, and is considering fitting in an extra trip to the United States in the weekend in between.

"There's a chance we also do the Mountain Bike World Cup in Soldier Hollow," said Pidcock, referring to the race in Utah, not far from Salt Lake City, in the weekend of 20 September. "But we haven't decided that yet — we'll make that call later."