World champion Tom Pidcock is set to continue his cyclocross season through to at least the end of January, with nine more races lined up on his winter calendar.
The Briton has already competed six times this season, taking wins at the X2O Trofee in Kortrijk and the Superprestige in Boom. Now, his programme for the next six weeks is clear.
Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad have reported Pidcock's remaining schedule in the lead-up to the Cyclocross World Championships on February 5, though it's not yet clear whether the 23-year-old will defend his title in Hoogerheide.
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This Sunday, he's set to take part in the UCI World Cup round in Dublin and he'll then take in six races during the Christmas-New Year period.
Between December 23 and January 1, he'll be racing the Silvermeercross in Mol, the UCI World Cup in Gavere, two Superprestige rounds in Heusden-Zolder and Diegem, and then the GP Sven Nys.
The X2O Trofee round in Herentals on January 3 will be his last race before heading off to a road training camp with his Ineos Grenadiers team, while the penultimate round of the UCI World Cup in Benidorm on January 22 is the last race on his current schedule.
That would leave a two-week gap, which includes the World Cup finale in Besançon as well as the Flandriencross X20 Trofee race, before the Worlds. However, by that point – with the Worlds a week later than last year – his attention might have already turned to his 2023 road debut.
Last month Pidcock said that he couldn't answer whether he'd defend his rainbow jersey, saying that it would be hard to balance a peak for that race with the start of preparations for the spring Classics.
"I can't answer that yet," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "The World Championships is very late this time, isn't it? If you peak for this Championship and then you have to prepare for the Classics…"
Pidcock has had a mixed bag of results in recent races, soloing to victory in Boom at the weekend and then finishing eighth after a slow start at the Antwerp World Cup a day later. At last week's World Cup round in Hulst he missed out on a likely second place after breaking a wheel late in the race.
