Race Thread

[RedheadDane]

I don't feel sorry for him either...just a result of cockiness.

I would probably feel sorry for him if he'd been seriously hurt.

 

[theyoungest]

haters gonna hate

He ruined an almost certain win by showboating, and failing. That's just dumb. He could have been seriously hurt.

 

[awavey]

the way he was riding & grimacing after the crash, I think he has hurt himself. though I still cant work out how he managed to do it

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I doubt he'll do that again, unless he's miles ahead; the mini whip was okay, it was the next jump where it went wrong......

Anyway, no CX Worlds, preparing for Spring classics. An interview I missed from Rouleur Live, and he explained why he might miss CX Worlds......

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSaRQJh756Q

 

[senna6541]

Shades of MVDP when he almost seriously botched it there a couple years ago or so.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Tom should be very happy it didn’t turn out worse that crash. Could have gone horribly wrong hitting a pole or something.

Nice race otherwise but it’s another thing with MVDP and Van Aert in the race.

 

[senna6541]

Yes, the riders will follow the money ...and Gravel where it is, as is the Lifetime GP scene. No need to travel across the Atlantic to earn a living.

Yep, seems like Kerry Werner is going down that road. Although I can imagine at some point going across the pond to be pack fill (for the most part) gets old. Loved his vlogs from over there though. The unfortunate thing is that at least out West a lot of local CX series have died out in the last couple of years.

 

[Lequack]

 

[Bolder]

He ruined an almost certain win by showboating, and failing. That's just dumb. He could have been seriously hurt.

I don’t think he was showboating — He said after the race that he thought about doing a tail whip but didn’t. It looked like he just carried too much speed over the previous jump and got off the line a bit. But definitely lucky to have only bruising and rope burns.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Pidcock has always been an arrogant with no charisma, little bit of a lesson for him. Showboating when his biggest rivals who keep beating him are absent

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Pidcock has always been an arrogant with no charisma, little bit of a lesson for him. Showboating when his biggest rivals who keep beating him are absent

Really?? He's not arrogant, you can't be when you're from Yorkshire - but has every reason to be; a World & Olympic Champion, TdF stage winner, etc

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Really?? He's not arrogant, you can't be when you're from Yorkshire - but has every reason to be; a World & Olympic Champion, TdF stage winner, etc

Hmmm.

 

[theyoungest]

Really?? He's not arrogant, you can't be when you're from Yorkshire - but has every reason to be; a World & Olympic Champion, TdF stage winner, etc

From a recent podcast I think Dylan van Baarle begs to differ... apparently Pidcock is quite frustrating if you're his teammate, because he never follows team tactics. He's definitely got some cockiness about him.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

There's a phrase about people from Yorkshire; " You can tell a Yorkshireman, but you can't tell him much..." it probably applies to him.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Most of the Mens' race today - espciall on that camber section
was like Laurel & Hardy trying to catch Pidcock
and then the crash and the comedy was over.

 

[postmanhat]

Pidcock has always been an arrogant with no charisma, little bit of a lesson for him. Showboating when his biggest rivals who keep beating him are absent

You could probably make an equal case for him being quite humble if you could be bothered. Lets keep puerile comments about rider's personalities to the fanboy threads on road forum please?

 

[theyoungest]

You could probably make a case for him being quite humble if you could be bothered. Let's keep the puerile arguments about rider personalities to the fanboy threads of the road section?

I'm not saying it's a bad thing... a certain amount of cockiness is needed if you want to be a top athlete, can't be too humble. You shouldn't let them eat the cheese off your bread, to use a very Dutch expression.

But yeah, it's a pointless discussion.

 

[Gwbert]

I'm not saying it's a bad thing... a certain amount of cockiness is needed if you want to be a top athlete, can't be too humble. You shouldn't let them eat the cheese off your bread, to use a very Dutch expression.

But yeah, it's a pointless discussion.

I wonder if he was a bit mentally tired after the kerstperiode. Anyhow i think it’s a good decision to skip the worlds and concentrate on his road season. Last year he really came out of the worlds badly and messed up his spring.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I wonder if he was a bit mentally tired after the kerstperiode. Anyhow i think it’s a good decision to skip the worlds and concentrate on his road season. Last year he really came out of the worlds badly and messed up his spring.

Which is what he said in that interview with Rouleur.cc; he was never really right/ health issues......The Spring classics are his first target of the year, so everything is geared towards them. Sounds pretty sensible to me.

 

[theyoungest]

Which is what he said in that interview with Rouleur.cc; he was never really right/ health issues......The Spring classics are his first target of the year, so everything is geared towards them. Sounds pretty sensible to me.

If the Worlds were in the USA again, I'd understand it, but now it seems a bit strange to ride so many cross races and then skip the most important one. That's not going to make the difference.

 

[awavey]

the fan you could see on the TV coverage has shared their video which gives another angle, it looks like Tom just hits a deep rut at the bottom of the compression after he landed and it just forces the bike out of control which with the speed he was carrying inevitably meant a crash

https://twitter.com/x/status/1609581572885200898

View: https://twitter.com/Cyclocrosss/status/1609581572885200898


also Cameron Mason, who was Toms teammate in the past and got on well with him, said Tom wasnt showboating, that section was just super sketchy to ride today.

 

[awavey]

If the Worlds were in the USA again, I'd understand it, but now it seems a bit strange to ride so many cross races and then skip the most important one. That's not going to make the difference.

contractual ? Red Bull for the CX/MTB stuff, but obviously Ineos then still have first claim on him.

Presumably though it affects the likes of Wout and Matthieu just as much if they intend to race the spring classics, but it seems its not even a discussion point with them yet.

 

[DNP-Old]

The thing with Pidders is he was run into the ground in 2022, and it feels like they are overcompensating now. Last year, he was racing practically every week without any rest whatsoever. The longest period out of competition was 3 weeks, which was just prior to the Tour. No wonder he was half dead in August. It cost him the MTB world title too, riding into trees (twice!) in Les Gets due to fatigue. Someone, be it Pidders himself, be it Bogaerts, be it INEOS, had to push the brakes and cut some things loose. But no, two weeks after Fayetteville - and a New York trip - he started in Algarve. One week later he starts in Omloop and does a full classics season until Liege. Two weeks later he's back in Albstadt. He had to dig really deep against Dascalu in Nove Mesto, but here prepping the Tour not long after. That was dumb planning.

A cross is a one hour effort max, how much damage can it be? Therefore, it does indeed not make much sense to skip Hoogerheide. Either start crossing a week later in December, or skip the Openingsweekend for instance if you wish to play it safe. He's not too keen on the cobbles anyway.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I don't mind the downhill section of jumps/rollers/tabletops/woops/whateveryouwanttocallthem, however the steepness of the hill they're on and therefore increasing speed, plus the amount of them definitely plays a part in the incidents on them as we've seen multiple crashes in multiple categories in every year they've featured. Hopefully they can do some work on them to improve the safety of them on 33mm tyres as any feature like that does need some repairs after constant use like they would at mtb trails or at bike parks. Maybe also changing the approach so they come in to them with less speed and momentum would reduce the some of the risk of issues.

 

[Wyndbrook]

The thing with Pidders is he was run into the ground in 2022, and it feels like they are overcompensating now. Last year, he was racing practically every week without any rest whatsoever. The longest period out of competition was 3 weeks, which was just prior to the Tour. No wonder he was half dead in August. It cost him the MTB world title too, riding into trees (twice!) in Les Gets due to fatigue. Someone, be it Pidders himself, be it Bogaerts, be it INEOS, had to push the brakes and cut some things loose. But no, two weeks after Fayetteville - and a New York trip - he started in Algarve. One week later he starts in Omloop and does a full classics season until Liege. Two weeks later he's back in Albstadt. He had to dig really deep against Dascalu in Nove Mesto, but here prepping the Tour not long after. That was dumb planning.

A cross is a one hour effort max, how much damage can it be? Therefore, it does indeed not make much sense to skip Hoogerheide. Either start crossing a week later in December, or skip the Openingsweekend for instance if you wish to play it safe. He's not too keen on the cobbles anyway.

I'm sure he can race flat out for an hour whenever he wants.
The issue is the need to peak for the worlds when he feels he should be doing specific roads training.
There is no point in him turning up to the worlds unless he is 100 percent, even that maybe not enough on a course that does not really suit him.