Tom Pidcock returns to the field this weekend to kick-start his 2022-2023 cyclocross campaign, but it may be short-lived as the world champion doubts whether he'll defend his rainbow jersey in February.
Pidcock, who dominated the 2022 Worlds in the USA at the start of the year, is racing the Superprestige in Merksplas on Saturday November 19, followed by the World Cup round in Overijse on Sunday.
Having called an early end to his road season in September, pulling out of the World Championships due to mental fatigue, the 23-year-old is making an earlier return to 'cross than his rivals, Wout van Aert and Mathieu Van der Poel.
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However, while that pair, who have seven world titles between them, have both confirmed their presence at the 2023 Worlds in Hoogerheide, Netherlands, on February 5, Pidcock is much less committal.
"I can't answer that yet," Pidcock said in a long weekend interview with Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
"The World Championship is very late this time, isn't it? If you peak for this Championship and then you have to prepare for the Classics…"
Pidcock made last year's Worlds a major target, travelling to the USA while Van Aert and Van der Poel stayed in Europe. He bagged the first elite rainbow jersey of his career but had a difficult Classics season that was diresupttd by bouts of sickness.
There were flashes of brilliance, and he played a big part in a successful spring for his team, Ineos Grenadiers, but was left with the feeling he was never near his best level. As such, he seems determined to make sure that's the case this time around.
"The road season is so much more important to me. That's how I feel this year too," he said.
"In 2023 I especially want to perform consistently in those spring Monuments. If I succeed, the results will follow. If you're up front with everything, you get more options.
"Last year I did play an important role in the victories of the team. Those victories lifted me a little bit, even if things didn't go the way I wanted for myself. Compared to Jumbo-Visma and Quick-Step, we have a young team, with less experience, but we can race. Let the great powers fight it out among themselves, we will attack them."
Pidcock therefore returns to cyclocross to debut the rainbow jersey this weekend, but with limited expectations in terms of results. He'll face the likes of Eli Iserbyt and Lauren Sweeck, who've been on the circuit for weeks now, before preparing to meet Van der Poel next weekend and Van Aert the one after that.
Having revisited a long-running knee issue in October, and with the start of the road Classics still far away with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 25, Pidcock says he'll be easing his way in.
“I finished the road season early. I already had enough free time. That rainbow jersey is also an incentive to get started. I want to honour that jersey as much as possible.
"I don't expect to win my first race or races. Look at the past two winters; my first races were never the best. They serve to gain rhythm. Two years ago I had to wait for the fourth race, last winter it was in the third. I hope we get to see the real Tom Pidcock in the second or third 'cross weekend."
