Tom Pidcock looks confidently toward his own World Championship chances after Pogacar's statements: "I even feel a bit too fresh"

On Friday, Pidcock sat down for a press conference, and there sat an excited rider. Upon arrival in Kigali, he said that he was pretty tired after the Vuelta, but his body had now fully recovered from the three weeks of the Tour of Spain. “Honestly, I feel well recovered. Maybe I even feel a bit too fresh,” he said boldly, quoted by Sporza.

Interesting words, because how can you be too fresh after three weeks of a Grand Tour? Pidcock said he arrived in Madrid in top form. “I've never finished a Grand Tour in such good shape. That's something new for me, and it's difficult to find a balance between recovery and sufficient training.”

The altitude in Rwanda, the smog, the temperatures... Pidcock wasn't too concerned about it ahead of the road race at the World Championships, but of course the conditions on Sunday will affect the peloton. The Brit agreed. “The traveling is a bit annoying, but I've been able to train well here. It's true that you really feel the altitude and the smog.”

“I'm here to perform. I wouldn't have traveled to Africa if I hadn't been convinced I could perform there. Anything can happen at a World Championship,” he said, motivated because Pidcock is fresh, with strong legs. “I wasn't really thinking about this World Championship. I was only thinking about the Vuelta, not what would follow. When I got home, I was also a bit nervous because I had a thousand things to do.”

So, buckle up, because Pidcock may have made his breakthrough as a GC contender with a podium finish in the Vuelta, but he has already proven himself in recent years as a specialist in one-day races. He won the Brabantse Pijl in 2021, Strade Bianche in 2023, and the Amstel Gold Race in 2024. His best performance at the World Championships was a sixth place in 2021, in Flanders.

In 2025, there were no victories in the one-day races, but Pidcock showed himself to be very strong in Strade Bianche, where he kept up with Pogacar for a long time. He also finished third in the Flèche Wallonne and rode in the top ten in the Amstel and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. And then we would almost forget that he is the reigning Olympic mountain biking champion from 2024, a title he also won in 2021.